Rivals with Benefits
by AlexxMMB
Summary: It was just sex between Naruto and Sasuke, the blond knew it, and yet he couldn't help but falling in love with his eternal rival. What would Sasuke think about this?
1. Chapter 1: From fist fights to sex

**Rivals With Benefits**

**Chapter 1: From fist fights to sex**

It was just sex. Every saturday evening the same: they would meet up in a warm place in the woods of an abbandoned mountain and spend the rest of the night together, until the other day would dawn.

The two friends with benefits were more than just that, they were eternal, bitter rivals until a certain event changed everything:

_They were celebrating his rival's 20th birthday in that timber house with all his friends around and lots of alcohol. Both of them couldn't stand each other for some reasons, but his rival's brother had thrown a birthday party for him and he was invited. He knew exactly that his rival didn't like getting drunk and being surrounded by people, but the alcohol was legal now (at least for his rival), so why not use this opportunity to forget the whole stress around? It's not like they've never been drunk before. _

_It was 3 A.m when everyone started to go home, it was a long drive for them to go home and everybody had had a few drinks. He knew that he had to go home, but he didn't manage to walk straight so he fell to the floor, trying in vain to get up. The alcohol decided for him to stay there and try to get some sleep, and while he heard the guest of honor laughing for no particular reason, he suddenly felt something heavy falling upon him. He opened his eyes only to find two raven black eyes staring deep into his own. He never understood what had driven them to do such a thing, but the next day he found himself naked on a carpet with his arms around his rival. _

_Exactly four weeks of unbearable awkwardness followed, until it happened again at Ino's party. She had rented a big local, so that all of her friends would fit in and everyone had to bring a date. He was over his crush for Sakura, that had become his best friend instead, and he couldn't date Hinata since he knew that his best friend had a crush on her, so he tried to ask other girls out, but everyone of them refused with silly excuses. He knew exactly that they only refused because he wasn't as popular and "goodlooking" as his rival. He then asked Tenten, who was the only one that had no date for Ino's party because she was in her crush's friend zone and she only agreed because she tried to make Lee jealous. His rival was forced by his brother to date Ino, since he was always lonely because people were annoying to him._

_Everybody noticed that both of the rivals have been weird for some weeks, but nobody knew the reason and they left it as it is, thinking that it was maybe 'cause of their hate for each other's guts. _

_That night their eyes would constantly meet, and every time they realized that they were staring at each other, they both took a drink. That had lead to drunkenness and to waking up in the position they knew just too well the next morning. They were both just happy that nobody was there, or else it would've been a big problem. They talked about it and they both came to the conclusion that they were driven by hormones, by alcohol and by the lack of sex, so they just pretended that everything would go back to normal and that they would be again just bitter rivals. As the saying goes "troubles always come in threes", in fact they ended up again having sex in the shower of the locker room of their football team. They both knew they were not attracted to men and of course not in love with each other, but this time they had nothing they could blame it on. All the dreams he's had the nights before the last event made him realize that he wanted, no, he needed, the other boy's body to be able to go on with his life without having weird problems every morning. Strange words came out of his mouth and he was surprised that his rival had accepted his idea; he just couldn't believe what he had just said and that the other young man was okay with the whole "sex partners" thing. They both knew it was a great plan to get over the hormones problems and the fact that the girls were after a serious love story rather than a one night stand, like them._

Years have passed since the first time and Naruto recalled it like it just had happened yesterday and smiled pathetically at his memories while driving back to his appartment after spending the night with his ex-rival Sasuke. They weren't rivals anymore, but they weren't exactly friends. Not even he did know what they were and nobody knew about them. Nobody knew that they weren't rivals anymore, nobody knew that they were seeing each other and nobody knew about their long-standing affair. He didn't even tell his best friend Kiba about it, not out of fear, but he knew that it was a secret. That _they _were a secret.

Naruto was still single, he had had a few one night stands with pretty hot girls shortly after what happened with Sasuke, but as time passed he couldn't bring himself to spend the night with anyone, nor could he bring himself to date anyone. How could he lie to someone who might want to spend the rest of their lives with him? He just waited patiently for every saturday to come so that he could spend the night with Sasuke.

After a few hours of driving, he finally got home, he crawled into bed and tried to get some rest.

* * *

Fist fights turn into sex  
I wonder what comes next...

"The Maine – Everything I ask for"


	2. Chapter 2: Summertime Sadness

**Chapter 2: Summertime Sadness**

_-One week later-_

It was summer and Naruto was probably the only idiot who had to work on summer days. He had a very small, but comfortable flat that he had inherited from his parents when he became an adult and that was situated in Utashinai.

_He had never had the chance to meet his parents: they had both died shortly after his birth. His mother wasn't strong enough to bear a birth because of her weak heart while his father wanted to keep the mother alive out of love and thinking about the strong bond that connects a child to the mother, so he asked for a heart transplant while she was in a coma. The transplant didn't go well, his father died shortly after the operation, while his mother woke from the coma, unaware of what had happened. The medics hoped in a good result so they didn't tell her about the transplant, but her body was refusing the new organ and she felt that something was wrong. She spent a week with her baby, but after she got weaker and weaker she asked Jiraiya (Minato's stepfather) to take care of the baby and left her will. Jiraiya had to tell Naruto about his parents once he would turn eighteen and would therefore understand, but since he got a deadly disease when Naruto was sixteen, he found himself forced to tell him about his past._

_Once he became and adult, he read his mother's will and he decided to live in his parent's appartment. The first years were troublesome 'cause there were still his father's and mother's stuff and he felt just weak and lonely while he read his mother's diaries, while he watched photo albums, while he listened to his father's cds...but he was lucky that he had an awesome friend like Kiba that had proposed to live together there to help him. It was easier when Kiba was still around, since he would contribute to pay the rent, until he was finally able to make his long-standing crush Hinata fall in love with him and moved in with her. Naruto was totally okay with it, in fact he had more possibilities to bring some girls home for the night, at least it's what he thought. All he got were problems, since the town he lived in was little, there were more and more people who moved out from that town and there were not much tourist that could help the city's economy._

_He was lucky that he was able to find a job as a waiter in a fast food restaurant, where he could also work as the cook's replacement whenever he was absent. He couldn't afford a car to drive to his work, he had to walk half an hour to get there and it was troublesome when he had to take late shifts, but since he had the possibility to spare some money with bringing home leftover food, he would have to find time to do some training to stay healthy: so it wasn't really a problem for him to walk home late at night, he was quite strong to take a few guys on alone. Also he could count sometimes on a ride given by his kindergarten teacher Iruka, that was like an uncle to him. He hadn't much time for the girls like he had thought, but at least he managed to get through the months with less problems. _

He dragged himself to work: it was five a.m in the morning and he was walking throught the lonely streets. He was still sleepy and the dark streets weren't exactly the ideal thing to wake up. He tried not falling asleep by thinking about Sasuke. Sasuke was always a way to make him feel better and the fact that he would see him again in the evening helped to rush his steps: the earlier he got to work, the earlier he could drive to Sasuke. He knew that he had special feelings for his companion, after all he was a handsome man, but it was not only because of the other's looks that had caused him to have a crush on him, also the fact that Sasuke would make him feel better whenever he was around him. The young Uchiha was always cold and indifferent with people, with girls and even with his friends, but the fact that he would still spend time with Naruto made him feel like he was someone special. Of course it was just sex and Naruto wouldn't dream about asking for more, nor did he want to. All he needed was Sasuke's body.

After work he went to Iruka, who would let him borrow his car every saturday. Iruka had given up on his job as a kindergarten teacher, only to start to lead an orphanage in Nohoribetsu and he would always travel with his friend Ebisu, who worked there as a personal trainer in a very rich family. Iruka didn't know where Naruto went every saturday evening, but he wouldn't bother asking the young man about it. As long as it made Naruto happy, it wasn't any of his business.

He was already on his way to Sasuke, when his phone rang. It was a private, unknown number, but when he picked it up and heard whose voice was on the other line he smiled sensually:

"Hey, Usurantokachi."

It was Sasuke.

"Couldn't wait until I got there, so you wanted to start right right away through the phone, huh?" - Naruto answered teasingly, but still with a slightly sensual undertone.

"You're such a dobe." - Naruto could feel that Sasuke was amused by the way he had slightly changed his voice and couldn't help but laugh, but his amusement stopped.

"Where are you?"

"On my way to you, what do you think? I managed to finish work earlier, so I thought about spending some more time with you" - Naruto was trying to seduce Sasuke, he loved every attention he could get from the other man.

"Turn around and go home. I can't meet you today, I have business to do"

"What? It's saturday, you should've been able to finish it during the week!"

"It's other business, my enterprise needs affiliates foreign, so I need to fly over to the U.S.A. to make deals."

Naruto had stopped the car. He was shocked as he heard that the Uchiha had other plans for their day.

"When will you come back?" - Naruto asked

"I don't know, I think in a few years or so"

Naruto went pale

"WHAT?! A few years? In America?!"

"Exactly. I'll let you know when I'll be back. Be a good boy and wait patiently for my return" - Sasuke was teasing him. Naruto just couldn't believe what he had just heard and he couldn't find any words to answer to those shocking news.

"See ya, Usurantokachi!"

"Yeah...see ya" - It was the only thing that Naruto could force out of his mouth. He was stuttering, but Sasuke didn't seem to notice, also because he had hung up.

Naruto stayed silent and still in his car for almost ten minutes, staring into the nothing. When he had regained conscience from his state of trance, he drove home and threw himself on his bed. He was staring at the ceiling, thinking about all and nothing.

Why did this hurt so bad? He had waited patiently for this evening to come, it's what made him endure the stress that every week brought, even if it was only sex. It had happened before that for some reason Sasuke was busy on some saturdays, but it had never bothered him that much before. It's true, he had a crush on Sasuke, but it didn't explain why his heart would pound so bitterly. He closed his eyes and tried to forget the evening, eventually he fell asleep at some point.

_They were drunk, he could tell that Sasuke must've had a bad day from the way he was acting and looking. He knew that he would be the bottom that night, after all everytime Sasuke was mad or stressed he took the frustration out on his body. He literally just fucked the problems away. Not that Naruto had something against it, he would just enjoy his little time with Sasuke, it seemed like it was the only thing that could make him forget everything around, at least for a few hours. _

_He was lying on the bed, with Sasuke dominating him and moving his hips at the rythm of his own. It was maybe just the alcohol and the longing that drove him to say that, but as Sasuke came into him he whispered a sensual "I love you" in his ear and fell asleep..._

Naruto woke up in shock and sat up fast, his heart was pounding loudly and faster, as if it could break his chest at any second. Wide-eyed, he placed his hand upon his chest and as he was breathing in and out with effort, he tried to calm down. He knew this had to mean something: he remembered that Sasuke had always made his heart skip faster whenever they simply exchanged a look, ever since Sasuke's lips let out those three simple words with apparently no meaning 3 years before, and he also knew that he always rushed to Sasuke every saturday afternoon to spend time with his... what was Sasuke to him anyway? They weren't rivals anymore, since rivals would never do the things they did; they weren't friends, since all they did was fuck (they would talk about each other after sex, but it was just meaningless talk, even if there were serious and sensitive themes involved); but they weren't lovers, there was no love involved in their actions. Friends with benefits? More like rivals with benefits, whenever they met up casually with their friends they would still fight over silly things, just for habit of doing so.

All Naruto did over the days was to think about Sasuke, thinking about the times together and thinking about their relation. He enjoyed every little bit of Sasuke he could get, but lately he'd been thinking about much more than just about sex.

Ever since he had heard those three words, Naruto became every day more and more confused about his feelings and he knew that he had a crush on Sasuke. He thought that those feelings would disappear after some years, like most crushes do, but he had to admit now that it was more than just a crush. His feelings were real and they wouldn't fade away easily.

He tried again to get some sleep, but just when he had put his head upon his cushion and had closed his eyes, the alarm went on to remind him that he had to work. It was the middle of summer, he would have to work hard to get some more money to be able to pay the rent at the end of the month and he would have to endure one whole year without seeing Sasuke, since the other man had to spend a business year in the U.S.A.

* * *

Kiss me hard before you go  
Summertime sadness  
I just wanted you to know  
That baby you're the best  
I've got that summertime sadness...

"Lana Del Rey – Summertime Sadness"


	3. Chapter 3: Puzzled

**Chapter 3: Puzzled**

It is as if the hours would last longer, every second was like a minute and the months were passing slowly. Naruto didn't seem to notice that they were passing, it was all the same to him: he started early in the morning, forcing himself to get up, preparing himself with the same emotionless face he had had for months, working for half a day the most days and then dragging his feet with no precise destination. He would just spend the time on a bench and just staring at the surroundings without clear thoughts in his mind. He felt hollow.

_3 months had passed and it was his 25th birthday, but he didn't seem to care much for it, in fact he didn't even seem to remember to have a birthday. His best friends surprised him with a big party with all his acquaintances from highschool and everybody seemed to have an awesome night. Naruto couldn't help but force himself to smile, his two friends noticed it and they could tell that Naruto didn't feel alright, so they tried to make him have fun. He was very drunk that night and didn't really remember anything that had happened. _

_All he knew was that he had an aweful taste in his mouth and that he had been brought home. He woke up in the middle of the night with his phone ringing and, as he picked it up, he heard a voice say "look out of your window, there's a surprise". He opened the window just to see a person standing outside of his appartment and apparently smiling, but that could've been just made up by Naruto's mind. He couldn't clearly see who it was, so he rushed to the door to open it and he couldn't believe his eyes as he saw Sasuke standing in front of him. Naruto ran to him just to push him in hard, but passionate kiss, tears falling from his face. _

He woke up the next morning to the sound of the alarm, with only the under half of his pajamas on and with an unbearable headache. Also he had a blue necklace around his neck and he didn't knew where he had gotten it. It was probably one of his birthday presents, he looked at it only to notice that it had his same eye color. He went to the bathroom, washed his face with cold water and remembered what had happened the night before. Naruto stood a few minutes silent and still, staring at himself in the mirror as he thought about the encounter with Sasuke. It felt all so real to him, but he was drunk the night before, so it could've all just been a dream. He heard a knock on the door, he opened it and found his best friend standing there with a smile on his face.

"What a party yesterday, ne Naruto?"

"Yeah, yeah, was totally awesome! Thanks, you're the best, man!" - Naruto said as he hugged Kiba.

"It's alright, it's alright, anything for my best friend! By the way, are you feeling well today? You had lots of drinks yesterday"

"Well, my headache is tearing me apart, but yeah, everything's fine" - Naruto smiled at his best friend.

"I'm really glad, you seemed a little worried about something...you were a little absent with your mind"

"Am I not always a little distracted? By the way..." - he looked at the clock in his kitchen - "FUCK! I'm late for work!" - Naruto rushed into his room, he pulled out some random clothes and rushed in the bathroom. He got out of the bathroom in less than a minute, only to find Kiba standing in front of him laughing like a maniac.

"I really don't understand what's so funny. I could lose my job and all you do is laugh?"

"I'm sorry, but if you only could look at yourself! C'mon...you're wearing your shirt on the other hand!" - Kiba said as Naruto noticed the label coming out of his shirt. He helped Naruto putting his shirt well on as he continued - "And by the way, it's sunday, you don't have to work today, remember? I told you you were totally distracted, more than usual!"

True, his birthday was on a saturday that year.

Naruto blushed out of sheer shame and couldn't help but to laugh with his friend about it.

"But since you're already up and dressed, let's meet Sakura and Hinata-chan!" - before Naruto could say anything else, he had been dragged along by Kiba. He closed his door and left with his friend to go where the girls were waiting.

"Naruto-kun!" - both girls screamed when they saw the two boys from far. They ran to him and both hugged him.

"All the love to Naruto, and there's nothing for me?" - Kiba asked offended, mostly referring to his girlfriend.

Hinata blushed. - "I'm sorry, anata" - she placed a kiss on her lover's cheek, Kiba turned a little just to kiss her on the mouth and deepen the kiss.

Sakura and Naruto were standing there, a little annoyed - "So, guys, what about getting something to eat?" - Sakura said, interupting the two lovers.

"I think that's an awesome idea, Sakura-chan. Let's go to Ramen Ichiraku!" - Naruto had a wide grin on his face, he loved that place. All had agreed, so he wrapped an arm around Sakura and the other arm around Kiba to take them there. He didn't have many friends, but the few he got were very special and precious to him.

The four of them were sitting around the table, talking and laughing for old time's sake. They hadn't much time to spend with each other 'cause all of them had to work and lived in different towns now.

"You remember the time you got drunk and we had to drag you home 'cause you were about to punch a guy for trying to get closer to Sakura-chan?" - all of them were laughing while Kiba continued with his memories. - "You were literally freaking out! You wanted to punch the guy, but you punched my arm instead and you fell down. I had to bring you home to not let you freeze in the snow!"

"Oh shut up, Kiba. You were not a better drunk than me. Don't you remember at our third school party, you wanted to confess your feelings to Hinata, but as the person sitting in front of you turned to face you, it was our biology teacher Orochimaru-sama!" - Kiba blushed ashamed, he lowered his look to watch his feet, mumbling something ununderstandable and looking quite annoyed. Sakura was holding her stomach that started to hurt from all the laughing; Naruto was smirking 'cause he knew that he had gotten his revenge, since it was a sensible theme for Kiba (confessing your feelings to a another man who is also you teacher isn't something to be too proud about, specially if you're drunk and you don't realize that it's not the person you meant to confess to); Hinata blushed, she had never realized that Kiba had been in love with her ever since highschool.

"Teme, that was a secret!" - Kiba stated angrily.

"What the hell? Kiba, everyone was there and watched in amusement. I wanted to stop you and I even did, since you were about to kiss that creepy guy!Your eyes were closed and of course you wouldn't notice, since you were completely drunk!" - Naruto, Hinata and Sakura were laughing peacefully. Kiba just stared at them annoyed, but eventually he started to laugh with them too.

"Oh Naruto, don't claim victory! Don't you remember what you did at Ino's birthday party?" - Sakura asked.

Naruto had no idea what Sakura was talking about.

"C'mon, everyone was there to see what you and Sasuke did! You remember Sasuke, right?" - Sakura had asked. Kiba and Hinata nodded. Kiba was looking at Naruto, amused by the story that Sakura was about to explain.

Naruto just stared at her, wide-eyed and pale. What? They knew? And they were even WATCHING it?!

"Everyone was there to see that Naruto had started dancing with Sasuke!" - Sakura and the other two started laughing, while Naruto was slowly calming from the shock he had to undergo.

"Oh, uh...yeah...that! Hehe, I thought it was Tenten!" - Naruto stated, starting to laugh, hoping that none of his friends would notice that he was nervous.

"By the way, how's that guy doing? Haven't seen him in ages! At some point I even thought that he had died!" - Kiba smiled at his joke.

"Well, he took on his family's company after his brother's death. I've heard in the news that the company had taken over some minor companies in the U.S.A. I sure hope he's doing fine, I used to talk to him for some time, but then I totally lost track of him. I invited him to Naruto's party, would've been quite funny seeing those two together again.." - Sakura was still talking, but Naruto couldn't concentrate on her words. He frowned as he heard Sasuke's name over and over again and he was staring into the nothing; his head had crawled into his shirt, so that his mouth and nose were totally covered by the collar. All the sounds, the voices and the noises seemed to fade slowly and all Naruto could hear were his own thoughts. How could it happen that they had to bring up Sasuke? They've never talked about him before. It's like the world hated him, it seemed that everyone and everything wanted to make him feel sad and hollow. Also, he felt like a psycho when he heard that Sasuke was still in the U.S.A, was he that obsessed with Sasuke that he started to believe that his dreams were real?

He snapped out of his thoughts into reality again when he heard Kiba calling his name and waving his hand in front of Naruto's face.

"Dude, you alright?!" - Kiba asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm just tired from yesterday. Guess I should go home and rest a little." - Naruto took his jacket and as he was heading out of the resturant he added - "See ya, guys!".

His friends were just stunned by Naruto's action and remained in silence for a long while, until Hinata asked them what was wrong with Naruto.

Naruto didn't head home, instead he headed to the graveyard. He would always visit a specific grave, in fact it was the grave of the man from whom had learned so much: Jiraiya. He kneeled in front of his sensei's grave, talking to him about all that had happened. He was an emotional wreck right now, he felt lonely with nobody there who could possibly understand him and the pain he was going through, in fact, neither did he. How could he let himself go that far as to fall for someone who would never return his feelings? To fall for someone who did only see him as an amusement to pass his free time with.

Naruto felt a drop falling from his cheek on the ground. He lifted his head to look at the cloudy sky, only to get a rain drop in his eye. What happened next? He couldn't really tell what, all he knew is that he found himself unable to stand up and he was starting to wonder about his wet cheek, if it was the rain or if maybe he had started crying.

After an hour of idleness, he got up and started to walk home alone in the rain. It was dark and Iruka had just gotten home from work, as he watched the young man walking in the rain. He rushed to Naruto and convinced him to go home with him to have dinner and to dry himself. Back at Iruka's place, he placed a towel upon Naruto's head while stroking it to dry him. He could tell by the look on Naruto's face that there was something wrong.

"What's wrong, Naruto?"

"Excuse me? There's nothing wrong...I'm..." - a tear fell down on the floor, wetting Naruto's cheek again. Iruka just stared at him incredulously and wondering if it was really the same boy he used to know standing in front of him. He had never seen Naruto cry before.

"What am I doing? - Naruto let out a small laugh at his statement - "I'm sorry, it's really nothing at all..." - Naruto interupted his excuses when he had felt two arms around him, hugging him in comfort. Naruto started to let out all the pain he had felt these past years out of sheer loneliness. It was not only because of Sasuke, but finding out about his parents and the death of his dear sensei made him colder towards the world and he didn't open up to anybody anymore. He was crying on Iruka's shoulder, while the other man was stroking his head and his back to comfort him, to let him know that he was not alone. After a few hours he had calmed down, Iruka was preparing dinner and Naruto was just reworking all that had happened that day.

"I know you love ramen, I hope you'll like mine, too!" - Iruka said, as he smiled to comfort the young man

"Thank you, Iruka-sensei!" - Naruto seemed to forget everything around when it came to ramen. Iruka watched him eating his dinner and he couldn't help but be happy that he was able to cheer him up a little. Naruto had always been like a nephew to him.

After they had finished dinner, Naruto helped Iruka to clean up the kitchen.

"I'm sorry for the troubles I caused you, it's just that..." - Naruto said as he stood at the sink. Iruka didn't want to force Naruto into talking, so he just answered with - "It's okay, Naruto, you know I'll be always there for you" - Iruka let out a small smile.

After some time passed in silence, Naruto decided to ask Iruka indirectly for help.

"I've seen an episode of a strange series a few days ago, I don't remember the title. Anyway, there were two friends, a boy and a girl who had agreed to become sex friends. They would meet just to spend the night with each other..." - Iruka knew that Naruto was talking about a personal fact, he had always used movies or song references to ask for advice. - "at the beginning it was just sex, but after a while the girl had started to develop feelings for the boy..." - Naruto didn't seem to want to go on with his story telling.

"So, how did the episode end?" - Iruka had asked.

"She was alone in her room, thinking about Sas...Sam...the other boy...I didn't recall his name, hehe!" - Naruto was scratching his neck and smiling apologetically. Iruka could tell that Naruto had made up a name, but he didn't want to deepen that theme. The important thing was that he would be able to help Naruto. - "She was thinking about Sam and she didn't know what to do...I really liked the story and I would love to write something like that one day" - One of Naruto's hobbies was to write stories. His guardian was a novelist and after his death Naruto started to read all of his books. When he was a little boy he thought that they were just some perverted fantasies of his sensei, but when he grew up he found himself loving his novels, so he found a new hobby in writing. It was also a way to feel Jiraiya closer. - "I thought that maybe she could be the only protagonist...what would you do if you were her?"

Iruka had to think a little before answering Naruto's question. He knew that Naruto looked up to him and he didn't want to make the boy suffer more with his answer. He knew that Naruto would do what he proposed.

"Well, assuming that it is a love story" - Iruka pointed the last word out, hoping that Naruto would understand that novels and reality didn't work the same way - "I think I would let her confide to one of her friends about it, her friend would tell her to confess her feelings to that boy and then she would do it."

"But what if that boy is cold towards everyone and has no friends because he finds people annoying, since he thinks that they're not as smart as him?"

"If the boy really finds people that annoying, than he wouldn't spend time with the girl."

"Hrm...what if he...she's scared to tell him?"

"I would let her try anyway, she might tell him about a future family to find out if he's interested. If he's that smart, he surely understands. Even if she finds out that all he wants is sex, like the feelings have come they also disappear. You know, Naruto, love is like a rollercoaster ride: it goes up and down."

Naruto nodded and felt a little relieved talking to Iruka.

"Thanks, Iruka-sensei! I think I should head home now...it's already late!"

"Don't worry, I can bring you home with my car." - Iruka said, as he lifted his car keys and lead Naruto out of the door. He saw the young man smile and couldn't help but smile too. His heart felt relieved as he watched Naruto's little, but warm smile.

After Naruto got into his appartment, Iruka couldn't help but wonder who he was talking about. He tried to puzzle all the information together: he knew that Naruto might have been the girl from the story, so the boy could be both a boy or a girl.

"A cold person, who seems to hate people...Sas...?Could it be...?".

* * *

My pulled hand  
the sound of my heart, the night's wind  
while being puzzled, I feel that I want to know more about you.

The little warm wind grazes my cheek and goes away.  
I look up at the sky where the thunder starts to sound.

The clouds go,  
The summer goes,  
But still I don't want to go home.  
You touched me, I want to ask for the reason but I can't ask you...

"Maiko Fujita – Mizufuusen"


	4. Chapter 4: Not in Love

**Chapter 4: Not in Love**

_-Six months later-_

Naruto was hanging out with Gaara in a club. Ever since they had become friends they were inseparable: friday evening was their night and nothing could stop them from having fun. They were dancing like maniacs around girls, from time to time they would take a drink and go back to having fun. They didn't care about their surrounding, about the problems that life brought with it, nor about the people that were staring at them with disgust. They didn't know why the people didn't seem to like them, but they didn't care as long as they were together having fun.

_Naruto had always been picked on as a kid. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with him nor did the people seem to care much about him. All he wanted was a little comprehension and some attention, he was lonely after all, but eventually he found out how to get what he wanted: he would always do silly pranks to the people around him, so that they would yell at him. Even if it wasn't a pleasant feeling to be yelled at, at least he got some attention._

_During one of his pranks, he hid in a bush nearby, but he hurt by mistake a baby fox and the mother was not pleased at all: the red fox jumped on Naruto, biting and leaving scratches on him. Naruto fell to the ground unconcious and he was later found by Iruka, who brought him immediatly to the hospital. Most of his wounds healed, but there were still noticeable consequences: for a few years he had to attend therapy sessions to get over his fear and over his nightmares and there were still scratches on his face and on his belly that wouldn't fade away. He was called a monster._

_Gaara on the other hand was a loner. He hated the people around him, he hated being in the spotlight and he hated the other kids. He had to grow up with an alcohol addicted, violent father that would beat him every night for no reason._

_He hated to see the other kids playing happily with each other, while he had to suffer physical abuse, so he let his frustrations out on the other kids: he would beat them up exactly like his father did and laughed at them when cried out of pain. Naruto was one of his victims, everytime he had seen him smile, he would kick him and beat him to a pulp, until he couldn't move anymore. He was called a monster._

_It was five a.m, Naruto was heading to work because of his early shift. He wasn't paying attention to the road, when he tripped over something hard. He fell to the ground, only to hear someone cussing at him: it was Gaara, who had been sleeping on the road and had been woken up by Naruto._

"_G...Gaara-kun? Is it you?"_

"_Pay attention to where you put your feet, you...wait, how do you know my name?"_

"_It's me, Naruto. Don't you recognize me?"_

"_Pffth, I don't know you and even if I knew you, I wouldn't care."_

"_How can you not know me? We attended the kindergarten and the highschool together! We weren't friends, you kinda hated me..." - Naruto said, and after a little pause he continued - "well, you hated everybody back then."_

_Gaara was still pissed that he had been woken up, ever since he managed to finally get some sleep._

"_Yeah, whatever. Now leave me alone, I'm trying to get some sleep."_

"_What are you doing on a road anyway?" - Naruto didn't understand why he would want to sleep on a road._

"_I think you didn't understand: my answer was not a question, it was a statement. I guess you already experienced what it's like to be beaten up by me, didn't you?" - Naruto was about to answer, but Gaara wouldn't let him - "So now piss off and leave me alone before I kill you for old time's sake!"_

_Naruto had no choice but to leave. During work he figured out that the other young man must've lost his home, there were no other reasons for a man to sleep on a road. When he had finished to work, he walked home and found Gaara still sitting where he had found him. Naruto had passed nearby the other man, but he stopped and turned to look at his old comrade: he had a sad and hollow look on his face and he was embracing his knees to bring them closer to his body. Naruto couldn't help but go back to Gaara and leave his dinner on the ground, in front of the redhead._

_Gaara heard a noise near him, he looked up, but he couldn't see anybody. He turned his head and saw Naruto walking away. He was already far, but he could see a warm, reassuring smile on the blond's face._

_The next day Naruto went to work, he passed right ahead of his old comrade without stopping, but something had grabbed his ankle and wouldn't let go. He turned his head and saw Gaara that was staring at the ground, letting a silent "thank you" out and letting the other man go. Naruto sat down to him and remained silent._

"_Why?" - Gaara had asked - "Why would you go that far for me as to help me, though I always treated you like shit?"_

_Naruto placed a hand on the back of Gaara, saying - "I don't think you're as bad as you want the others to think. I always thought that we could be friends" - Naruto gave him a warm smile and Gaara couldn't help but feeling guilty._

_Days went on, and Gaara had accepted Naruto's offer to share his appartment with him, he had also helped him getting a job. Gaara and Naruto had become good friends._

Naruto's phone rang, he was annoyed that someone would bother him on his and Gaara's day, but for all he knew it could've been his boss, so he headed out of the club to answer it. He picked up the phone.

"I'm sorry, but I'm a little busy. If it isn't too important I have to ask you to recall tomorrow morning."

"Hn, I don't know. Do I count as important?" - Naruto's eyes and mouth widened -

"Just messing with you, dobe. Anyway, wanted to tell you that I'm back. I'll be waiting for you at the same place, at the same time." - the person on the other line had hung up on him and he just couldn't believe what had just happened. When he came to his sense, he found himself with a fast beating heart. He fell to the ground and stared at the night sky with a lost look. He had let his phone slip from his hands and it was now splattered on the floor in a million pieces.

It was Sasuke. Sasuke was back. He was finally back. He had never been happier before. He couldn't help the wide smile that had appeared on his face, his eyes were sparkling and had watered a bit. He knew it was out of joy.

He heard Gaara calling for him, he got up and saw his friend rushing to him.

"Is everything alright, Naruto?"

"Yeah, got just a call from an old acquaintance. Everything's fine" - Naruto assured him, and added a silent "now" after some time.

"What was that? Did you say something?"

"Yeah, let's go back inside and have fun!" - Naruto smiled as he took Gaara's wrist and pulled him inside the club. They were partying all night long.

The next day, Naruto woke up to the scent of coffee. Gaara had been already up and had prepared it to surprise Naruto with breakfast to bed. He would always do things like this for Naruto, since he had been his first true friend.

"Goodmorning, thought I would surprise you with breakfast. I have to rush to work now, hope you enjoy your coffee!"

Naruto had helped Gaara more than everyone else had: Gaara was socially inept, but with Naruto's help he started to get used to society and to how to to be a nice guy. He had even made another friend at work: his name was Neji and he worked with Gaara as a cashier, they would spend some time together and just talk about each other, drink some coffee and go for walks.

"Listen, I wont' be here when you come back. The phonecall I got yesterday was from a friend of mine and I will meet him. I'll be back tomorrow."

Gaara had opened the door, as he turned around to face Naruto.

"Oh, alright. Do I know him?"

"I don't think so..." - Naruto didn't like to lie, but this wasn't completely a lie. After all Gaara didn't know Sasuke personally.

"Well then, see you tomorrow. Hope you have fun" - Gaara smiled and left the apartment.

"I will..." - Naruto said to himself, smiling peacefully.

The hours didn't seem to pass, it was still 3 p.m and Naruto was becoming more and more impatient. He couldn't help but to think about Sasuke, about how he would look like, after all almost a year had passed since their last meeting. He thought about his and Iruka-sensei's talk, and that the time had come when he would have to tell Sasuke what he really felt about him. This thought made him even more nervous than he already was, but he knew he had to find the courage to do so, he had to find out if the other man had the same feelings for him and if he was ready to spend his life with him.

Naruto tried to prepare for the talk, thinking about which words were more appropriate and how he would be able to bring up this theme.

Naruto stood up as he saw that it was time to go. He closed the door of his apartment, got into his car and drove to Sasuke. It was a long way to go, but he had already done it for the past six years without complaining, since the important thing was the meeting with the person he was in love with.

He turned on the radio, as he sang along some old songs on his father's cds. He loved the rock'n'roll music and he just enjoyed the heavy music and strong lyrics, that explained just too well the singer's emotions. He hummed all of the songs along the way and finally after a few hours he got to that wooden house where everything began. Sasuke was looking out of the window and rushed out of the house to welcome the other man. Naruto couldn't help himself but to stare at the Uchiha while the latter was walking towards him: it seemed like he had gotten taller, his hair was longer, but still spiked, with bangs that were almost reaching his shoulders, he seemed to have trained a lot the past year, Sasuke had always been thin and healthy, but now he had more muscles and his body was just too well built. He could say that Sasuke had reached perfection. He didn't notice that he had been standing there still for some time, but when he regained senses he ran to Sasuke, nailed him to the wall and pulled him in a deep kiss. Naruto didn't want it to end, but Sasuke had to gasp for air. They looked into each other's eyes for a while, when Sasuke leaned forward - "You missed me, huh?" - he had whispered in Naruto's ear, with a sensual smile. He started to kiss down Naruto's neck, while the latter unbuttoned Sasuke's shirt only to run his hand down his back, while the other hand seemed to be busy with the other man's hair. He could feel a shiver running down Sasuke's spine and grabbed for the other's belt, as he was pulling the other man closer to him. Oh, how he had missed him.

Sasuke had penetrated Naruto's mouth with his tongue and they were kissing hard. Naruto got to Sasuke's zipper and opened it violently, he was about to crawl with his hand in Sasuke's pants to grab the other man's behind, as Sasuke pulled away from the kiss and moaned, smiling - "let's go inside".

Naruto pulled him again in a kiss, as the other man tried to open the door that was now behind him with his eyes closed and when the door had opened, they both fell on the ground. Naurto landed upon Sasuke, both let out a small laugh and stared into each other's eyes for a little while. Sasuke's eyes were as black as the night sky, but there were sparkles in it, as if there were stars in them. Naruto kissed him slowly and they shared a lustful, but sweet kiss.

They got up only to make it to the couch in front of them, Sasuke grabbed Naruto by his collar and let him fall with him on the couch. They were sharing another deep kiss as they fell on the couch, starting to undress each other. Naruto had started from Sasuke's shirt, unbuttoning it rather fast and placing his right hand upon the other man's chest. His hands were cold and he could feel the other man shivering, as he let out a moan in Naruto's mouth. The other hand was busy running through Sasuke's hair, only to end up caressing sweetly the other man's cheek.

Sasuke tried his best to calm down to enjoy the other's presence, as he run a hand down Naruto's back to place it on the other's sacral bone, while placing the other hand on Naruto's neck to pull him closer to him.

After caressing Naruto's back, he got to the other's pants to pull them down, while he took Naruto's shirt zipper in his left hand to pull it down. Naruto was a little unconfortable with the position he was in, he tried to spread his legs a little more, but he soon realized that his right leg wasn't on the couch anymore, so that he fell from the couch and pulled Sasuke accidentally with him. Sasuke looked at him sarcastically and annoyed. Why did the blond have to be such a morron? But he didn't really care and he found Naruto to be quite amusing actually, so he gave him a smirk and went on from where he had left. Sasuke sat straight upon him taking his opened shirt off and tossing it away. He dashed on Naruto and placed a kiss on the other's lips, the kiss only to be deepened by the blond shortly afterwards. He bit the other's underlip and started to kiss him all over until he got to Naruto's stomach. He started to let his tongue play with the other's navel and noticed a few healed, but once deep scars. Why did he never noticed them before? They had been spending time together for almost 6 years now and he only noticed them now. Why did he notice them anyway?

Naruto was playing with Sasuke's hair, moaning in pleasure and rubbing his head against the carpet, when he noticed that the other man had stopped and was staring at his belly open-mouthed.

"Is something wrong?" - Naruto asked. Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts as he simply answered - "no".

Sasuke crawled back to Naruto's upper half and kissed him deeply, his hands on the other's cheeks.

Naruto began to strip the other man and himself, since Sasuke seemed busy kissing him. Sasuke pulled away from the kiss after a long while and whispered sensually - "I want to feel you inside of me" - in Naruto's ear; while he was finishing the sentence, he found himself nailed to the carpet, with Naruto penetrating his eyes with a deep look.

"This is definetely the right night" - Naruto thought, as he started their too well known act.

They spent all night long enjoying their bodies and each other's presence, having sex on the carpet in front of the warm fire that lit the room through the chimney. It was may, but it was still cold on the mountains.

It was five a.m, they had spent some hours having sex, but he didn't seem to be tired. He had enjoyed Sasuke and all he would get afterwards, even if it was only a sleeping Sasuke. He loved to watch the other man sleep, in his sleep he always seemed so innocent and happy, without any worries. Sasuke was laying on Naruto's chest, and Naruto had his right arm wrapped around Sasuke and the right hand in the other man's hair, caressing his head.

Sasuke looked relaxed and Naruto couldn't help but to think about how handsome he was: he had his eyes closed and a small smile on his face that was hard to notice, but Naruto knew it was there. Sasuke seemed to enjoy his caresses and seemed fast asleep.

Naruto was smiling happily, but his smile soon became a worry as Iruka's words rushed through his mind. His heart started to skip faster as he began to realize that the moment had come where he had to find out if the one he loved felt the same about him. They had only been meeting to have sex with each other, they were only rivals with benefits. He started to imagine what it would be like to have Sasuke every day by his side, what it would be like if Sasuke were his lover, what it would be like to be loved. He had never felt what it was like to be loved by someone. He had been told that "love is when you only think about a person, want to be by his side and want to make him happy" by his sensei Jiraiya, when he asked him about it.

_At that time he had a crush on Sakura and he wanted to stay by her side, even if she didn't like him back. He didn't really know what to do back then, he picked her flowers, wrote her poems and even screamed how much he loved her, but all he got everytime he did one of those things was a punch on his face. He was seven around that time, but he could feel the pain of not reciprocated feelings very well. Jiraiya saw how sad he looked and he tried to comfort him, telling him that if he would fight for the person he loved he would be able to make her fall for him. It made Naruto feel better, but no matter how many times he tried to protect her, she would never be satisfied._

_After ten years they became friends eventually, but he knew that she would always see him only as a friend. He gave up on her, he knew that she was in love with his rival and he wanted her to be happy, with whomever she would chose. This was what love was about, at least in his eyes._

He had calmed down, but he couldn't help but to look hurt. His heart was beating slowly but sadly and his eyes started to water. They were so close and yet so distant. What could he possibly do to make the other man realize what he meant to him? What could he do to make him fall for him, like he had fallen for Sasuke? Everytime Sasuke was on his mind it hurt. - "Sasuke..." - he whispered, but he didn't even realize that he had not only thought that. He closed his eyes to forget everything and try to enjoy the man he loved, without thinking too much about the future.

He felt a warm hand caressing his chest and as he opened his eyes he found Sasuke smiling at him. His heart started beating faster as his fears were relieved by just one look. He smiled, his heart filled with hope and he thought that maybe it was really the night that would change everything and turn it to the better.

"You're awake?" - Naruto said, as Sasuke placed a small kiss on the other man's mouth.

"How could I sleep when you're here?" - Sasuke smirked and sat up, only to be embraced by Naruto. Naruto felt Sasuke's breath upon his arm and his heart beat: their hearts were skipping the same beat.

"By the way, why are you not asleep?" - Sasuke continued.

"For your same reason, I guess" - Naruto smiled. They were in Sasuke's bed and were both looking outside of the window. It was a calm, starry night.

"You missed this, didn't you?" - Sasuke was teasing him, but Naruto didn't give in - "I don't think so, I could easily live without you." - Naruto teased back.

"You may say so, but your mind didn't seem to be able to resist me!"

"Oh, look who's talking. The one who called right after being landed at the aerport! You know, I could hear the background noises through the phone and there were voices who were definitely saying something about flights!" - Sasuke started laughing at Naruto's statement and so did he. They were having an awesome time. What they never realized is that they were friends, they would also spend time talking about each other's lives, and still they were only rivals.

They talked for what seemed a few hours: Sasuke told him about the U.S.A., how everything seemed to be different there and what he did in his free time, while Naruto told him everything that had happened to him, how he worked hard to get through life, how he had befriended Gaara and he told him about his friends and their relationships.

"Relationship" was the key word. Naruto knew that it was the right time to find out what the other man felt. He had a good feeling, Sasuke seemed happy to spend time with him, so he didn't worry too much, but his heart couldn't help but racing.

"You know, lately I've been thinking a lot..." - Naruto didn't know how to put the words together, but Sasuke seemed to help him involuntarily.

"About what?"

"Well, about this...about us...about a...future family" - Naruto didn't stutter, but he was insecure and Sasuke could feel it.

"I've been thinking about it, too. I mean, it doesn't really help my carreer as business man to be single. I'm almost 26 after all, I need someone by my side."

Naruto couldn't help his wide smile, it was like they were sharing the same thoughts. Was this maybe what the other kids would refer to as "butterflies in my tummy"?

"I'm glad we've been thinking about the same things..." - Naruto whispered warmly in Sasuke's ear.

"Yeah, you were always able to understand how I feel" - Sasuke said as Naruto caressed the other man's head with his nose and placed some sweet kisses on it.

"You know, I think I have found the person who would be perfect as my future family..." - Sasuke enjoyed the other's caresses and Naruto could feel it. He was about to faint from happiness, as his heart seemed to be breaking out of his chest.

"I'm happy for you, you know, I think I've found the right one, too..." - Naruto whispered, his voice filled with love and happiness. He closed his eyes and imagined them forever like this.

"Yeah, I've found the perfect girl. You remember Ino? She's become a model in the U.S.A. I've met her a few times when I stayed there." - Naruto's eyes widened.

"What? Ino?" - he almost chocked on his own words. He took his arms away from Sasuke's body.

"Yes, Ino. I started dating her, at least it's what the press thinks. It's a pretty funny story actually: I had been invited to a party by the magazine that had interviewed me that day, and she was also there. She recognized me and was literally annoying me, but she said something that caught my attention. She had a serious problem, she confessed to me that she had been seen kissing another girl at a party, the rumors had spread and her father wasn't pleased with it. She asked me for help and I told her that we could have pretended to be couple. So there's no problem with it, I can still see you and our little fling can remain a secret!" - Sasuke smiled relieved.

Naruto had never felt so hollow, sad, hurt and stupid before. Sasuke had put together the most horrible words in one single sentence and they were haunting him. Our little fling can remain a secret. Sasuke saw him as a little fling, as something that shouldn't have happened. As something wrong. What did Ino have that he didn't? What could she give him that he couldn't? Why wasn't he good enough? This was all Sasuke thought about their relation? They had spent almost six years seeing each other, the talked to each other, they had an awesome time together and all Sasuke could call their relationship was a little fling. A secret. Naruto wanted to cry, but he snapped out of his thoughts.

"Dobe, are you even listening?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm just a little tired. It's...really awesome news..." - Naruto stated, not at all convinced by his own words. He felt something really hard in his throat as he was barely able to speak. He turned away from Sasuke.

"I know, right?" - Sasuke said enthusiastic, and after realizing that the other man wouldn't answer he added - "well then, let's sleep" - he rolled to the other side of the bed and caressed Naruto's arm, before turning to the other side. Everything seemed to fall down, Sasuke's words rumbled in his mind and he wasn't able to sleep. Some silent tears fell down from his face and he couldn't even figure out why, even if the reason was obvious.

* * *

Never gonna make me want it more than fun

if you wanna be the one, be the one just for now  
But we're not in love  
No matter what  
It's not enough, we're not in love

"Natalia Kills – Not in love"


	5. Chapter 5: Like it came it can go away

**Chapter 5: Like it came it can go away**

After a few hours Naruto opened his eyes: he was tired, he hadn't slept at all and his broken heart wouldn't leave him alone. He looked sad at the other man, who had wrapped an arm around him and that seemed to sleep peacefully, obviously dreaming something good. Naruto couldn't stand the pain in his chest any longer, he had to get away from there to think about everything. He moved Sasuke's arm away from his chest and put it slowly down on the bed as he watched the other man moaning in his sleep. His heart was beating sadly and he swallowed the pain of not reciprocated feelings. He got up, got dressed and left the house far behind.

He was in his car, driving quite fast to get as soon as possible back home. Gaara would wait for him and he would surely notice the hollow look on Naruto's face. What could he possibly say to Gaara? He couldn't tell him about Sasuke, they were just a secret and nobody knew about them nor they ever would know about them, but he couldn't lie to him either. Why did this have to happen to him? It was such a beautiful night, full of passion and lust, and he really thought that it would've been the night that would change his life. Well, it did actually change his life, but it didn't go like he had expected. Sasuke didn't love him back. All the nights they spent together didn't mean a thing to him. It was just sex. He didn't mean anything to the one he loved. He was just a sex toy.

"I'm just a toy?" - Naruto got mad. His sorrow was just too much to bear and he couldn't stand it anymore. His pain turned into bitterness as he grit his teeth in anger. He was becoming desperate, he put his hands in his hair and wanted to pull them out. Naruto had let go of the steering wheel and the car was sliding on the road. After a while he came back to his senses, as he realized that he was about to hit a tree. He tried to straighten the car and braked immediatly, as his head had hit the headrest. Naruto sat still in his seat for a long while, wide-eyed and breathing hard out of shock. He tried to calm down, but the pain and the shock wouldn't let him: Sasuke rushed through his mind, he clenched his fists and smashed his head against the steering wheel, again and again; he had hit the clarkson that would let out a honk everytime Naruto crushed his head against it. Tears fell down from his face, as he started to cry out loud and bitterly to try to forget his sorrow that was tearing his heart in a million pieces.

He had cried for nearly twenty minutes and he was now looking at the window, his thoughts swirling and spinning round and round in his head. He didn't understand anything, he had a hollow smile on his face and he was staring into the nothing. Naruto didn't seem to notice that the time was ticking on, it was all the same to him: it was like everything was racing around him except his actions. He raised his hands to be able to look at them: why did this have to happen to him? Why couldn't everything be much simpler? And why the hell was it hurting so much?!

'love is like a rollercoaster ride: it goes up and down' - he remembered Iruka's words. It didn't seem like it would go up again, his love life was more like a ride on a ferris wheel, and right now his ride had come to an ending: he could either decide to take another ride or to end it there.

'like the feelings have come they can go away' - Naruto let out a deep sigh. How could he forget something that had made him feel whole?

'Whole...who am I kidding, anyway?' - he thought. He had never felt so hollow in his entire life. It made him feel good to think about Sasuke as lover that would never leave his side, but it was not the case. Anger came up again, as he remembered their last night. He didn't seem to understand how the other man couldn't feel a thing when they had shared deep looks into their eyes, caresses, kisses...why was he the only idiot whose heart would skip a beat whenever he thought about the other? He clenched his fists against the steering wheel and let his head lean back onto the headrest. He couldn't understand, he didn't understand and he wouldn't understand how he could fall in love with such a bastard. It's not like Sasuke treated him with respect, in fact he made it clear that Naruto was just killtime. He tried his best to hold back his tears from wetting his face again when he thought about letting Sasuke go. He didn't want to let Sasuke slip away from his life, he didn't want to lose the other man! He put a hand on his forehead and relaxed a bit when an idea came to his mind - 'I don't have to leave this all behind if I forget those feelings. I could just start to see him as sex partner, like in the beginning. Sasuke would have his fun and I would have him...' - Naruto felt a little relieved, but an important question still remained unanswered: how could he forget about his feelings for Sasuke? After five years of intense heartbeats whenever Sasuke crossed his mind, it wasn't just a simple crush anymore. It wasn't just lust, nor just desire...it was love. Naruto let out another sigh, when he realized that his phone was ringing. He picked his phone only to find 4 unanswered calls from Gaara. Naruto instantly dialed his friend's number and he heard him screaming.

"Where the hell are you? I've been calling non-stop this past hour and you didn't answer! I was worried!"

"Uhm, yeah, sorry about that. I got a little tired on my way home, so I decided to rest a bit..." - Naruto said. It wasn't a lie, after all he was tired, tired from all this emotional stress.

"I thought you got into a car accident or something!"

"Gaara, you have to stop to be so pessimistic! I'm still alive, calm down!" - pessimistic? It was funny how he seemed to be the exact contrary. Maybe he had to stop being so optimistic, it would only tear him apart.

"Next time leave at least a text message saying that you're alright, so that I don't have to worry." - Naruto was Gaara's most important person, he had always been very protective of him from the beginning and he would worry whenever Naruto disappeared for some reasons.

"Okay, okay. I'm heading home now, should be there in an hour"

"Alright. See ya later!" - Gaara hung up and Naruto started to drive towards home again.

After an hour he got home, but he didn't seem to find Gaara. It was almost six p.m, where the hell was he?

He entered the kitchen and found a note: 'Hey Naruto, had to take an extra shift. I left some ramen in the microwave. Will be back in a few hours.'. He opened the microwave and saw a big cup of ramen with extra pork. Just what he needed to raise his mood!

He finished his extra shift and was about to go home, when he heard someone calling his name. He turned around and saw Neji that was running towards him.

"Gaara, wait up!" - Neji was taking a breath - "Wanna have some coffee?"

"Well, I was about to go home..." - Neji frowned at his statement and Gaara saw the disappointment in the other man's eyes. - "It's almost ten...what the hell, let's go have a real drink!" - Gaara had grabbed Neji's wrist and took him to the nearest bar. They were sitting in front of the barkeeper and Gaara was ordering their drinks. Neji was a little worried as he looked into his drink, trying to figure out what was in there.

"What's wrong?" - Gaara asked.

"Well, I've never had alcohol before. I have a friend that doesn't respond too well to alcohol...actually at all." - Neji was a teetotal.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. It's not like we're going to get drunk. Here, try to take a sip: I assure you, it's delicious!" - Gaara was handing him his drink and smiled. He tried to act like Naruto would, he really wanted to have friends. He'd always been lonely, but he knew that if he tried his best he would be able to make friends. Of course he wouldn't become as reckless as Naruto was.

"Thanks" - Neji smiled back at Gaara, still worried about the possible consequences. He recalled that his highschool partner had almost demolished a bar when he got drunk. He took a sip and widened his eyes as he realized that it really was delicious. He could tell that there wasn't too much alcohol in it, it was more a fruity cocktail, though it was a little sour.

"It's my favourite drink. I like sour." - Gaara said, as he saw the other man's expression. - "If you don't like it you can leave it to me." - he added shortly after, making Neji burst out of laughter.

"Don't worry about that, I seem to like it" - Neji answered, taking his drink out of Gaara's reach as if he were jealous. Neji's reaction made Gaara let out a small laughter and he started laughing, too.

Neji and Gaara were having a great time, they were talking, they laughed and they got to know each other much better. They actually had a lot in common: both of them had been loners and never seemed to care about the other children's wellbeing, because of their messed up childhood. They had had a few other drinks, but they weren't drunk. It only helped them to crack stupid jokes and laugh more easily about them.

"What would you do if I was drunk right now?" - Gaara asked, joking.

"Hell, please don't do it! I don't know where you live, how can I bring you home then?"

"You would leave me here alone at the bar?!" - Gaara answered with a teasing smile.

"No,no, of course not! I would never leave a friend behind!"

"Wouldn't you bring me to your home?"

"I don't know, wouldn't it be a little weird?" - Neji smiled.

"Why should it be weird? We're both guys. I also share an appartment with a male friend."

"Well, I..." - Neji had been interupted by a loud laughter.

Two other men had entered the bar, they seemed a little tipsy, but they could still walk straight. They were laughing and hugging each other as they got to sit down at a table in the corner of the bar. Neji and Gaara were staring at them as they saw the other two men kissing passionately. It was a short and innocent kiss, but Gaara's smile faded as he watched the other two men half disgusted and half terrorized.

_He remembered a scene he had to witness, where he was watching tv late at night while trying to ignore his father's drunkenness. It was a film or a show, he didn't remember clearly, but there were two men kissing on tv and his father had started to demolish the tv, as he screamed that it was wrong, that it was disgusting and that it was sick. His father turned around to face his son, anger sparkling in his eyes as he was getting closer to him, whispering "you are wrong" before hurting him._

"I think they're cute together" - Gaara snapped out of his thoughts, turned his head to Neji, who was still staring at the two men and said - "This is wrong." - Neji was surprised, but since he was tipsy too, he said - "how can love be wrong? I'm proud that they're brave enough to show the world that they love each other."

"They're disgusting." - Gaara said. He didn't really know what he said, they were just words that had been printed in his mind by his furious father. He was still influenced by his dad's bad example.

"Everyone has a right to love whomever they want. Love is not about sexuality, it's about wanting that the person they love is happy...look how happy they are!" - Neji smiled happily, but Gaara didn't seem to agree.

"They're sick!" - Gaara had screamed in Neji's face, with fear in his eyes. Gaara was still in his thoughts and he was reenacting his father involuntarily.

Neji didn't answer. He looked down to the floor and said after a few minutes of silence - "I don't think we should be seeing each other..." - Gaara looked at Neji with a questioning look. - "What?" - he asked shortly after.

"We can't be friends" - Neji said, still staring at the floor.

"Why?" - Gaara didn't seem to understand what had gotten into the his friend.

"You hate me..." - Neji frowned at his own statement and looked away saddened.

"Why would I hate..."

"Because I'm like them!" - Neji interupted Gaara's last question, and without hesitation he ran out of the bar.

Gaara couldn't believe what had just happened. He didn't know if he had to worry about the fact that he had been hanging out with an homosexual man or about losing a quite close friend.

* * *

I don't know what to do,

maybe I should go, maybe...

What is love? It is listening in silence to the moon,  
it is losing you and suffer without making any noises.  
Love is you, the slow awakening of a flower,  
to love more...it is a sweet madness, and it's also a little my fault  
that I love you more...

"Umberto Tozzi – Qualcosa, Qualcuno"


	6. Chapter 6: Listen to your Heart

**Chapter 6: Listen to your heart**

Naruto had gotten Gaara's text message saying that he would be hanging out with his friend, so he decided to clear his mind with a walk in the park. He left a message on the kitchen table for Gaara (otherwise he would have to listen to the other's exagerated worries again!) and got out of his appartment. He walked for miles, thought about everything that had happened the previous day and couldn't help but looking sadly at the ground. After a while he finally got to the park, only to find Iruka sitting on a bench. The man looked worried for some reasons and Naruto decided to keep him company.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei, what's wrong?" - Iruka lifted his head to where he had heard the voice, only to find Naruto.

"Naruto-kun! What are you doing here? It's late, don't you have to go to work tomorrow?" - Iruka had asked.

"Don't worry about that, I'm a morning person" - Naruto smiled. It was a joke to raise his old sensei's mood a little, they both knew that Naruto was a very sleepy person. Iruka smiled at him - "why are you so sad, ne, Iruka-sensei?" - Naruto added after a while. He was still standing in front of Iruka, but he sat down to start a conversation. He knew that he had to help the other man, after all they were like family.

"I have some problems at work and I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of them" - Iruka answered.

"The way you're looking it seems like it's more a heart problem than a job problem..." - Naruto said, teasingly, and still he was right.

"I guess you know me too well, Naruto" - Naruto received a warm and comforting smile from Iruka.

"Women...they just mess with us, don't they?" - Naruto was still teasing. He lowered his look and was staring at the ground. Women...seriously?He didn't have problems with women, more like with men...a specific man.

"Yeah, yeah...women..." - Iruka answered a little unsure and distracted. - "They're all the same. I guess we should start living without them, you know, just us guys!" - Iruka added after a short pause for reflection. He was teasing back.

Naruto smiled at Iruka, but didn't answer.

"By the way, how's the girl in your story doing?" - Iruka said after a long time of awkward silence.

"What st...oh right, yeah, she's doing fine, I guess..." - Naruto had completely forgotten about his story. After the last talk he had with Iruka, he really started to write the story based on his own experience, but he hadn't continued with the writing for a long time.

"Did you finish it?" - Iruka asked.

"No, I didn't continue it, I'm stuck at a point..." - Naruto answered. He didn't know how to go on without letting Iruka notice that he was hurt. - "I took your advice, halfway. She asked him about a future life and he didn't seem to be interested...he had other plans..." - Naruto paused. He became sad again. - "I don't know how to go on. She likes him a lot and she doesn't want to let him go, but she doesn't seem to be able to be seen as just a love toy. I wanted her to try to forget those feelings so that she can still spend time with him, but it's hard. We're still talking about love...what should I do?" - he added.

"She should just listen to her heart, whatever it might say, even if it seems like it's the wrong decision it is the best opinion you can get. Sometimes you can't just walks straight forwards: you can get to a point where you have to decide whether to go right or left. Nobody can really help you finding out which way is the right one, sometimes there is no right way, but you have to chose and you have to keep in mind that you have to live with the decision you take. You might regret it or you might live happy, but it has to be your heart to chose." - Iruka had started to talk about Naruto without taking "the girl" in consideration. - "She might be able to get over her feelings for him, but she also might getting hurt worse. Sometimes what you want is not what you really need. I bet she's a strong and an intelligent person, she will figure out eventually what can truly make her happy. " - he added, as he smiled warmly and was caressing Naruto's back to comfort him.

Naruto stared puzzled at Iruka, he didn't know what else to say. Iruka took him in his arms and embraced him softly, when Naruto closed his eyes and started to think about how to go on.

"Don't worry Naruto, it'll be alright eventually. Maybe that boy isn't the right one, maybe she'll find another one eventually. Love is a mistery, but I'm sure there will always be people who will help her, people who she can turn to if she feels lonely and desperate." - Naruto turned his face towards his old sensei as the other man was going on - "She will get over him eventually, or they will have an happy ending...who knows? You're to decide"

Naruto got home after his talk with Iruka. He didn't really know if the other man had helped him or made him even more confused, but he was right: he had to chose. He turned on the tv to get some distraction, but it seemed like the world wanted to see him down: there were only silly soap operas with exagerated dramas or soppy happy endings. He had never liked soap opera's, there were just too many silly love triangles in them. But hey, there was nothing else better going on on tv, so he watched it. At least he would be able to concentrate on something else.

After half an hour he heard Gaara open the door: he rushed to his friend to question him about the evening. He knew that Gaara didn't have many friends and knowing that he was hanging out with someone made him happy.

"Gaara, Gaara, Gaara!" - Naruto screamed enthusiastic, as he got to the other man. He was about to call out his friend's name again, but he could tell that there was something wrong with him.

"You're already back?" - Naruto tried to start a conversation.

"I think so..."

"Why? Thought you would stay a little longer with your friend" - Naruto was indirectly questioning him.

"Well, I guess that is not the case anymore, don't you agree?" - Gaara said bitterly, still tormented and confused by what had happened. Naruto just looked at him with a worried look. - "listen, I'm sorry, I'm just tired." - he added.

"Are you alright?" - Naruto asked, trying to find out how to help his friend. Gaara just looked away and sat on the couch, only to be followed by Naruto.

"Can I ask you something, Naruto?" - the redhead said after a while.

"Sure, what's on your mind?"

"What is love?" - Gaara had lowered his voice. Naruto couldn't believe the question as he looked at Gaara incredulously.

"I mean, how would you define love?" - he re asked the question.

"Uhm, love? Well, it is when you have strong feelings for a person, when you want that the other person is happy, I guess." - Naruto answered. It was all about love wasn't it? It was like the world was only turning because of love.

"But you can't love a person with your same gender, it's sick and twisted..." - Gaara was mostly talking to himself and he hadn't noticed that Naruto's eyes widened. Why the sudden question, and mostly, why the hell such a statement?

"N-n-no! You got it all wrong! Who told you such things?" - Naruto was stuttering and trying to defend himself. After all he knew that Gaara could be pretty aggresive when he got mad and he did love another man...

"My father had seen two guys kissing on tv and he beated me"

"Listen Gaara, your father used to be cruel to you for no reason, that doesn't mean that what he told you was right"

"Men are supposed to be in love with women, not with other men. They are supposed to marry and to have kids, so that the world can go on."

"But if there's no love between two people then why should they have a family? Family doesn't mean that you have to have kids, you can just live with the person you love and be happy with them. It's family too"

"I don't know what I should believe...". An awkward silence started between them. Naruto had to figure out what to say to make him feel better.

"You want to know what love is about? Love has no restrictions, you can't choose who to fall in love with. It just happens." - Gaara seemed to relax a bit. - " Love is about the sweet feelings you get with every single look, about the shivers when you think about the other person, about wanting happiness for the other person, even if they love another person." - Naruto smiled warmly at him. Gaara looked up to meet the other's eyes, Naruto could feel that there was a fight going on in his friend.

"Don't worry too much, you just need time to figure it out..." - Naruto was about to continue the conversation, but he got interupted.

"How can I not worry when I scared a friend off with my behaviour? And it's all because of him...why can't I be like all the others? Why can't I be normal?" - Gaara was desperate. Life had been enough unfair with him and he seemed to screw up every friendship he tried to have.

"But you are normal. You're the most sensitive guy I know. I know you wouldn't hurt anybody..." - he got interupted again by the redhead.

"What do you know? I'm an aweful person. I literally screamed in his face that those things are wrong...and he's gay...he was scared, he was afraid, he ran away from me."

"I'm sure you didn't mean it"

"How can I not mean what I said? There were two men kissing in the bar and I told him that they were disgusting multiple times. He told me that we shouldn't be seeing each other and ran away. I'm a monst..."

"Don't you try to finish that sentence. Why do you put yourself so down? Where's your self esteem, where's the strong guy I know? I don't recognize you. You seem to like him, whether you believe or not that homosexuality is wrong. I think he liked you too" - Naruto interupted his friend. He didn't want to hear that bullshit his friend was about to say.

"I do like him...he is a really good friend. Well, was..." - Gaara frowned.

"Friends are supposed to fight for each other."

"What should I do then? Go to him and ask him for forgiveness? Hell, he's scared of me Naruto-kun!"

"Neji was the same as you. He will understand." - Gaara was confused. How could he face the other man without thinking about his father's words?

"You know what? Let's look up for the word "homosexual" on wikipedia. Normally people tend to hate what they don't know or can't understand. You need to learn how to tollerate and how to forget about those grudges you still hold." - Naruto stated. He wanted to show him that to be in love with someone is never wrong, so that the other man would understand and maybe he would convince himself to still hang out with his friend, despite his sexuality.

While Gaara was reading he started to understand many things and couldn't help feeling guilty. He believed in his friend's words, but he was still afraid of his own father. It was getting late, so they went to bed, but Gaara didn't seem to be able to sleep: everything was so confusing at the moment and his thoughts and memories would haunt him for the rest of the night. "Friends are supposed to fight for each other", he recalled Naruto's words. He didn't want to lose a friendship even since he had never had one before, or at least, he had never started one before. Neji was a close friend, although they've only known each other for a few years, so he really didn't want to lose him.

'You are wrong', he got up immediatly holding his head between his hands. He closed his eyes and tried to get his father's words out of his head. Why did he have to ruin everything? No, he had screwed up just too many times because of his memory, he wanted to forget, he wanted to erase his fears, his insecurity. His father wouldn't ruin the rest of his life too. He laid back and thought of Naruto's words. His friend had always been there for him, he had helped him so much...he did really like him. He started to relax as his father's terrorizing picture started fading away only to be replaced by Naruto's sweet, innocent and warm smile. Gaara smiled back at the thought and fell asleep peacefully. In his sleep he was dreaming about himself, about Naruto and about them together. They were having fun and Naruto's eyes were sparkling. 'Love is when you constantly think about a person'...could it be...love?

* * *

Listen to your heart

hear how it beats, how it begs, how it screams

hear how it lives, how it laughs, how it cries

even if you want it, I won't interefere

the way you do it will be alright

Listen to your heart

hear how it beats, how it begs, how it screams

hear how it lives, how it laughs, how it cries

if you want it, it will decide for you

even if you might regret it someday,

it'll be ralright.

"Sido - Herz"


	7. Chapter 7: Time to come clean

**Chapter 7:** **Time to come clean**

_-A few days later-_

Gaara was working, and from time to time he would glance at Neji: he knew that he was wrong and he wanted to get his friend back so badly, but he couldn't figure out how to tell the other man that he was sorry. He had never asked for forgiveness before because he never had to, it's true that he had hurt Naruto, but he had forgiven him without hesitation and without even asking for it. How could he explain his friend that he didn't really mean what he said and that their friendship meant so much to him? How could he talk to him without feeling guilty and make Neji accept his lame excuses? After all it was his father's fault that he had been a homophobic. Naruto told him that Neji would listen to him and would understand if he told him his story, but he wasn't really sure of that anymore: the other man didn't dare to look him in the eyes or even in his direction, it's like he ignored him out of fear; whenever he had problems while working at the checkout he asked the other employees, even the ones he didn't like at all. Gaara frowned and let out a sigh, when he remembered that it was their day to reckon the monthly revenue. They would've been alone in the shop until late night, so he even had enough time to figure out what to say and to talk to his lost friend.

It was ten p.m when everyone started to go home and Neji was checking some of the cash registers. Gaara couldn't help but stare at him nervously, he still didn't find the courage to tell him. Why was it? He had always been an outright and direct person, but for some reasons it was different with Neji. Neji could feel eyes on him and he turned around to look at Gaara. The redhead could tell that the other was starting to freak out, he was probably intimidated by his weird behaviour, but he couldn't help to not look away, he had to tell him that he still wanted to be his friend.

The hours were ticking and it was time for them to go home. Neji was about to leave the shop as he felt something grab his wrist, or better, someone. He turned around only to see Gaara with a stalkerish look on his face, his hand shaking a little. Neji widened his eyes out of fear, expecting a punch on his face or something like that, but instead he saw the other man fall to his knees. Gaara didn't realize what he was doing, his body was moving on its own and his lips were out of his control.

"Neji, please, I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said that night, I really don't mind your sexuality, I just want to be your friend again..." - Gaara was staring at the floor, still holding Neji's wrist, while the other was looking at him perplexed.

"Hope you don't do that everytime you screw up something!" - Neji said with a wide grin, causing Gaara to look up.

"C'mon, let's have a drink!" - He added shortly after, helping Gaara to stand up and taking him to his house.

After a while they got to Neji's house, it wasn't that big, but spacious enough for a little family to live in.

"I thought you'd take me out to a bar" - Gaara stated. He really didn't think that Neji would've showed him his house. After all, house was a private business, not something everyone got to see, especially with Neji.

Neji had never been a talkative person, he had always been a loner just like Gaara. He didn't believe in future, nor did he have a reason to live, but everything changed after picking up a fight with Naruto. That blonde boy seemed to be able to change everyone.

"Well, I thought at my house it would have been quieter, I know you don't like loud places." - Neji answered as he let Gaara enter his house. His house was silent and had an enjoyable atmosphere, filled with plants that made it look like it was a park. Neji seemed to like nature, just like him.

"Nice house, it's really relaxing" - Gaara said with enthusiasm.

"Thanks. Make yourself at home, you can sit on the couch. I'll be right back!" - Neji said as he vanished in another room that seemed to be the kitchen. After a while Neji came back with two red cocktails that looked really delicous.

"You know, I've been practicing a lot since you forced me to drink my first drink" - Neji said with a smile. He placed a glass in front of Gaara and sat down right next to him.

"I'm really sorry I freaked you out that night" - Gaara said after a while. He was glad that his friend seemed to want to forget what happened, but he still felt guilty and wanted to explain everything to Neji.

"Don't worry, it's alright. I understand what it's like, I've been like that myself too before I realized that I was attracted to men." - Neji smiled, trying his best not to use words that could bother Gaara. The redhead could feel that Neji was still a little intimidated from him.

"Please, just hear me out. I want to explain to you why I reacted that way. I really didn't mean to, but seeing those two men kissing brought up awful memories from my father and they were tormenting me..." - Gaara said. Neji just stared at him saddened by his friend's story, as the latter went on with every detail about his memories from that night, about his messed childhood and about his abusive father. Neji wanted to help his friend, but was still unsure about what he should do. Eventually he figured out that the other man needed some comfort, so he placed his hand upon his friend's back and as Gaara didn't seem to be bothered by it, he started caressing his back. Gaara looked at Neji as the latter gave him a warm smile to make him feel better. Gaara smiled back.

"You know, I really want to taste your drink right now" - Gaara said, as Neji took his hand away to reach for his glass.

"Well then, let's drink!" - Neji and Gaara took a sip and Gaara couldn't believe how delicious it tasted.

"That's delicious!" - Gaara stated as Neji started scratching his head in bashfulness.

"I used some pomegranate juice, thought it might give a nice taste. I thought of you while mixing it!" - Neji smiled at Gaara, while the latter stared at the ground. Nobody was ever thinking about him, and knowing that a person had him in his thoughts made him sad and happy at the same time. Neji was a little stunned as he felt two hands around him hugging him, but he embraced the other back and they shared a deep and friendly hug.

"I didn't mean to hurt you..." - Gaara said, before being interupted by Neji.

"Shh, stop it. Let's forget what happened, alright?" - Neji pulled the other away to look him in the eyes. Gaara was looking saddened, but eventually smiled and nodded agreeing. He was happy that he was able to save a friendship.

The days went on and Naruto started to realize that maybe he would've been able to live without his feelings for Sasuke. He felt like a winner because he was able to forget about his feelings and about Sasuke for a while. He would think about the sex with the other man just to start to accept their real relationship and he grinned pleased about the thoughts, like everyone else would do. It was friday and Naruto grinned aroused by the thought that he would've been able to see his hot lover the day after. He thought about all the things they would do, about the rough sex he had planned, but he had to stop his thoughts because he was working and something really awkward could have happened. He sighed and started working again until the end of his shift, there were a lot of customers and he had to rush to be able to serve everyone. It was almost midnight when every customer finally left, Naruto was about to leave when he heard his phone ring: it was an unknown private number, who would be wanting to talk to him at such a late hour? He picked it up and he heard a voice saying "stop at the third crossroad and wait there" before the other person hung up. He didn't really understand what was going on, but he did as the voice told him: he stopped at the third crossroad and waited there impatiently. He could be really reckless at times, he knew it himself, but he was a genuinely adventurous and curious person and he wanted to know what was going on. He waited there a few minutes, before he felt his arm being grabbed and someone pulled him in a narrow and dark alley on his right side. He was nailed to the a cold wall, obviously by a taller person than him, and he could feel someone's lips pressed on his own. He widened his eyes, but went along with the kiss as he realized that he knew those lips just too well. They shared a long and lustful kiss, before the other man pulled away and gasped for air. Naruto was still shocked, but he opened his eyes to see Sasuke standing in front of him. Why was Sasuke in town? How the hell did he know where he was?

Sasuke was staring in the other's light blue eyes, his dark eyes were on fire and they seemed to scream out for Naruto. He was still thinking that he was in a dream or something, but he realized that it was real, Sasuke was real, and the warm breath on his ear was real: "I want you, now..." Sasuke had whispered, before pulling him in another passionate kiss. The other man had started unbuttoning his shirt and was kissing down his neck, while Naruto was enjoying it, remembering his own words "I could start to see him as a sex partner, like in the beginning". He then realized that in order to forget he had to act, so he started to think of how he could please himself and the other. He tried to turn the other man, but he didn't succeed, obviuosly Sasuke wanted the upper hand that night. Naruto didn't give in, he became bitter as he realized how he was being used, so he made both of them fall to the floor in order to be able to dominate the other. Sasuke fell on his stomach, mumbled something and tried to get up, as Naruto had placed both hands upon the other's to block Sasuke's action and got closer to Sasuke's face, that was pressed on the floor.

"You know, I'm not some sex toy" - Naruto said as he started to strip the other down. He wanted to feel what it was like to be Sasuke, he wanted to feel what it was like to fuck without feelings, he wanted to feel what it was like to be a selfish bastard.

"You're my sex toy" - Sasuke said playfully, making Naruto's anger rush through his veins. He needed to get it out on Sasuke, he needed to make the other feel how he had felt the past years! They were just having rough sex on the street, something that would waste their energy after a few minutes, it was something intense.

Sasuke wasn't really okay with how things were going, he could feel the other's tension very well, but he didn't complain nor fight, he was already tired after all and wanted to stop, but Naruto went on whether the other wanted or not. He wanted to hurt the other, but he didn't seem to be able to. He stopped right there after a few seconds, looking at the other man who was laying there and breathing hard in and out, obviously wasted and pleased at the same time. He stared at him a few minutes before the other man returned the stares. They looked deeply into each other's eyes and Naruto felt a little disgusted as he could feel that the man he still loved seemed to be asking for more. He didn't feel disgust for the other man, he couldn't blame Sasuke for his feelings, but he blamed himself for thinking shamelessly to be able to just fuck the other's brain out without remorse or feeling. He was still a human being, he didn't want to become some robot who would do whatever they were told to do.

Sasuke was confused and as he wanted to speak he was interupted by Naruto's phone ringing. He got up and picked up his phone.

"Where the hell are you?" - it was Gaara.

"Sorry, was retained on my way back home" - Naruto glanced at Sasuke with an annoyed look as the latter just stared confused back.

"I was worried! You could've just..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I could've left a message. Will head back right now" - Naruto stated annoyed when he interupted Gaara's worries.

"I didn't say that, you can stay..." - Naruto hung up on Gaara. He really didn't need to hear his friend's senseless accuses. Sasuke didn't say anything, just continued to stare puzzled at Naruto.

"What was that?" - Sasuke finally asked, he had never seen Naruto answering so arrogantly to anyone.

"I'm done. Guess I'll see you tomorrow, my dear toy." - Naruto said, looking at Sasuke with a lustful smirk. He was still trying to convince himself to be happy with the way things were going on. He picked up his clothes, got dressed and left Sasuke back. Sasuke still couldn't believe what was going on.

Naruto got home, when Gaara welcomed him with an unpleasant smile.

"Why the hell did you hang up on me?" - Gaara asked annoyed.

"Leave me alone, I'm tired." - Naruto was sick of all that had happened. He just wanted to get some sleep to forget, and he turned around to head to his room. Gaara just stared at him leaving, without saying anything. He shut his door and fell on his bed, his head hidden in his pillow as he started to think about the night. What the hell was he thinking? He thought he'd feel better, he thought he'd feel pleasure, he thought he'd be able to look at the other man as a sex partner. Maybe he was thinking too much, maybe he was expecting too much from himself. What should he do?

'Sometimes what you want is not what you need', but he needed him so much. He remembered the way they used to spend time together, it was almost like they were making love...he felt loved, he felt wanted, he felt needed.

Naruto fell asleep with the sweet memories of Sasuke rushing through his mind and dreaming of what still could be.

The next day he woke up from a sweet and innocent dream, but as he realized that he was back in reality he felt hollow. He frowned and decided to stand up, he had overslept but he wasn't late though. He got to the kitchen and sat at the table as his cup was presented before him. He looked up to see Gaara, which he hadn't noticed at all.

"Goodmorning, Naruto-kun" - Gaara said, a little bitter about what had happened the day before.

"Hey Gaara" - he took a sip - "Thanks, by the way." - he added shortly after.

"You're welcome. By the way, what the hell happened..." - Gaara was interupted by Naruto's phone ringing. It was an unknown private number and he could imagine who it was.

"Sorry, I'm gonna take that outside" - Naruto stated as he left the kitchen to pick up the phone.

"Hello?" - He said.

"Hello to you too, Naruto" - he knew it. It was Sasuke.

"What do you want? You never call that early in the morning" - Naruto stated. He wasn't pissed, nor annoyed, he simply wondered what that phonecall was about.

"Still pissed from yesterday? Thought I could lift your mood a little...I'm in town for a few days, what if you meet me in sooner today? What about 3 p.m?" - Sasuke said playfully. He just didn't seem to get that he was the reason of his frustration the previous night.

"I don't think I can, I have to work and I have to travel a few hours to come to you" - Naruto answered.

"Didn't you listen? I'm in town, meet me at the 'Art Cafè' in front the restaurant you work at. Your shift should be over by then" - where the hell did Sasuke know about his shifts?

"Erm, well then, I guess I have nothing better to do...but where are we going?" - Naruto asked perplexed, but he couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face.

"Ino has an appartment here, she's out for a few days to meet her old comrades, so we're alone." - Sasuke said lustfully. He seemed to enjoy their phone calls. Naruto's anger was rising again, and as Sasuke realized that he wouldn't get an answer, he just said - "see you later" - and hung up.

Naruto throw his phone against the kitchen window. He didn't seem to realize to have hit the window instead of the wall, and he also didn't seem to have noticed that Gaara had heared everything. He opened the door and got in, only to find Gaara standing in front of him with his arms crossed.

"What was that about?" - Gaara said with a serious tone.

"Just leave me alone!" - Naruto stated angrily as he was about to get back to his room, but instead he was grabbed by Gaara and was thrown on the sofa.

"Now you listen to me. I'm really tired of you walking away from me. Why the hell are you ignoring me?" - Gaara said bitterly. The redhead was about to get mad.

"I'm not. Everything is fine!"

"That's not what your actions say! You know I could hear everything from the kitchen. Who was that on the phone?"

"That's none of your busin..."

"It is, because you're my friend!" - Naruto was interupted by Gaara's screaming. He was running away from everyone, closing his doors to the world and to his friends. Naruto could see the dead serious look on Gaara's face, there was no point in hiding it anymore, he had been caught red handed.

"It was Sasuke..." - Naruto whispered.

"Sa...Sasuke? That Sasuke from highschool?!" - Gaara was shocked. He didn't expect to hear that name ever again since Sasuke didn't do friends.

"Is that the old friend you were talking about?" - Gaara asked curious.

"I guess so..."

"And why did you act like that?"

"I..." - Naruto didn't know how to go on. - "don't know..."

"Hell, Naruto, I could see the way you looked while talking to him! I've seen you smiling and blushing, and I've even seen the way you frowned and smashed your phone against the window!" - Naruto wasn't even shocked at Gaara statement, he didn't realize anything. It's like he was on drugs. Tears were starting to form in his eyes.

"We meet every saturday in his house on a mountain in Noboribetsu"

"You what? You travel that much to see a friend?" - Gaara asked.

"I wouldn't call him a friend" - Naruto stated, his voice cracking a little from the pain that was coming up.

"You...Sasuke...are you..."

"No we're not. We have sex with each other, we're a secret, I'm his toy..." - Naruto said it calmly, as if it were something that happens everyday. He was hollow and so he acted. A tear fell down on the floor.

"Why are you..."

"I love him" - Naruto stated, smiling pathetically, more tears falling from his face. Gaara didn't know how to answer. He could imagine why his friend was crying and the only thing he managed to do was to put a hand on the other's back to comfort him.

"He's just a sex partner, I will see him as such." - Naruto stated, wiping his tears away as he stood up and went to his room to prepare himself. He had to work that day and Gaara figured out that Naruto needed some space.

And here was Naruto: standing in front of the 'Art Cafè' Sasuke was talking about. He was smiling, one of his shallow smiles with his real feelings hiding behind of it. He had always smiled like that, ever since he was little, it was a self protection from the world. Nobody could harm him this way. He sighed and entered the cafè, only to find Sasuke sitting next to the window and staring out of it at the road, supported by his elbow. Sasuke turned his head and smiled at the Naruto, before waving and making him sit in front of him.

"Hey, you want something to drink first?" - Sasuke asked looking at Naruto and grinning. He was obviously imagining what would happen afterwards.

"No, thank you." - Naruto returned the other a smile. He couldn't understand why Sasuke could be so sweet at times, and though all those calm moments they shared seemed to be an illusion, a "foreplay".

"C'mon, let's have a drink!" - and before Naruto could complain, Sasuke had already ordered.

"Is something wrong?You seem worried" - Naruto didn't understand how the other could read his mind. Nobody had ever seen through his fake smile, why was it different with Sasuke?

"No, everything's fine!" - Naruto grinned wider, as if it could be more believeable. Their drinks arrived and they drank in silence.

They left the cafè and went to Ino's appartement, it was quite big and comfortable.

"Make yourself at home, be right back!" - Sasuke said, before he left the other man and Naruto sat down on the couch, staring at the surroundings. Sasuke came back shortly after, without his jacket on because he had obviously taken it off and sat down next to Naruto, caressing the blond. Naruto didn't respond, he just sat quietly in his seat, trying to enjoy the caresses and at the same time trying to forget the pain. Sasuke ran softly a hand down his cheek, before pulling him in a sweet and passionate kiss, but he could notice that Naruto was absent and distracted.

"Dobe, what's wrong?" - Sasuke asked, his face still close to Naruto's and his eyes stuck into the other's blue ones. Naruto seemed to faint, as he was lost into Sasuke's black and worried eyes, but he knew it was all a lie. Still he couldn't hold the light blush coming up on his face. Sasuke started to shake him.

"Naruto, what's wrong with you?" - he asked persistent. He couldn't understand Naruto's actions.

"It's not about what's wrong with me, it's about what's wrong with you" - Naruto stated. His voice and face showed no emotion, just the hollowness of his soul. Sasuke widened his eyes, trying to understand what the other man was talking about. He didn't seem to understand at all what Naruto meant by that, he couldn't understand why Naruto was acting so weird.

"You don't seem to understand, do you? You don't seem to notice what I really feel, though you used to say that two people can read each other's thoughts once they bump their fists. Could you see what I was thinking about when I looked into your eyes? Could you feel what I felt when you touched me?" - Naruto said bitterly. Sasuke just stared at him, without any words to say. The blond pulled him in a deep kiss that was immediatly returned, as he granted his hands access to the other's chest. He caressed his body with his hands, he needed it so much, he wanted to enjoy it for the last time. Sasuke pulled away after a while, Naruto's words rushing through his head and confusing him more and more.

"What did you mean by..." - Sasuke was interupted by another kiss from Naruto. The blond took the other one's hands and placed them on his back. They both started to undress each other slowly, sharing passionate kisses and caresses. Naruto place his hand upon Sasuke's pants and squeezed it slowly. Sasuke pulled away from the kiss and moaned in pleasure as Naruto approached to Sasuke's ear.

"This is what you feel. This is all you feel" - Naruto had whispered in Sasuke's ear, still teasing him with his hand. The other man couldn't help the moans, as much as he wanted to understand what had gotten into the other. Naruto smiled softly at the other's reaction, pushing him gently down on the couch and kissing him lustfully, but still in a sweet way. They shared some intense hours of passion, lust and needs.

It was 8 p.m when Naruto woke up, he was lying on his left side, tightly embraced by Sasuke. He could feel the other man's warm body pressed against his own, his warm breath on his neck and a cold hand upon his chest. He turned around to look at Sasuke sleeping: he looked awesome, so peaceful in his sleep like a child. The dark haired man smiled as he felt a warm hand carressing his arm and keeping him warm. He slowly opened his eyes and saw two beautiful blue eyes staring back at him. Naruto got closer to Sasuke and kissed him sweetly as the other closed his eyes again, he parted from the kiss slowly, biting softly the other's bottom lip.

"This will be the last time, my beloved Sasuke" - Naruto said, smiling sadly at the other man, who didn't seem to realize what was happening around him and trying to get back to sleep. Naruto got up and got dressed and as he was about to leave the bedroom door, Sasuke widened his eyes in shock. He watched as Naruto left the bedroom, got up, took his pants and put them on while following the other

"What did you say?" - Sasuke stumbled upon something and was about to fall, when Naruto catched him.

"We won't be seeing each other again" - Naruto stated firmly, smiling sadly at the other man.

"Why? I thought, I thought, but..." - Sasuke was confused, he didn't understand anything. He had just woken up, he still needed time to get back to the real world.

"Our secret can't go on. My roommate figured out everything about us. You have to run a company and you have to go on with your life. I won't be a problem for you, you don't need me in your life" - Naruto stated. He knew exactly that it was the truth and he also knew that Sasuke had heard what he had said earlier.

"That's not true, you're not a problem, I need you in my life!"

"You don't need me, you want me, or better, my body. The way I want you and the way you want me is different. This cannot go on, we both know this. Your future is with Ino, my future is with someone else" - Naruto said, as Sasuke began to understand what the other man was talking about, though he still didn't seem to agree with the blond.

"Naruto, we can still..."

"Farewell, Sasuke..." - Naruto interupted Sasuke, as he shut the door behind him. He continued to smile sadly with a hollow look on his face. He ran down the stairs of Ino's appartment and got to the parkings where his car was parked.

After ten minutes he got home, Gaara didn't seem to be in their flat. He shut the door and fell down to the floor while leaning on the wall. He ran his fingers through his hair, holding his head between his hands. He looked at his appartment and was relieved that he had finally been able to end his "a-few-years-stand" with Sasuke. He could hear his phone ringing for the next few hours, but he knew who it was, so he didn't pick up. He went to his bedroom, he sat down on his bed and looked at his phone, where there was written '16 missed calls from private number'. Naruto let out a small laugh, before it turned into a bitter cry. He cried for nearly an hour non stop and whether he wanted to stop or not, he wasn't able to. His tears were mixed with all the feelings he had rejected and hidden for so long and as he looked out the window he could feel that he had been only lying to himself this whole time: how could he have been able to forget such strong feelings for a person? How could he have just pretended that everything was alright, when everything was falling down?

Gaara came home and went up to Naruto's room, only to find the blond man sitting firm there, with red eyes, a hollow glance on his face and sobbing silently. The redhead joined Naruto and took him in his arm, as the other returned the embrace, starting to cry again in the other's shoulder. Gaara caressed the other's head and held him tighter and closer as the other let out all his pain. When Naruto finally calmed down he told everything about what had happened, about Sasuke, how everything began and how everything ended and lastly about his feelings.

"I never meant to fall for him, but I failed miserably. I just can't go on like this, I can't love a person who doesn't love me back..." - Naruto stated and Gaara nodded.

"You know you did the right thing. You'll find the right one eventually, you know...maybe the right one is right in front of you and you don't realize it" - Gaara was looking deep into Naruto's eyes and smiled warmly, as the latter widened his own eyes. Was Gaara seriously in love with him?

* * *

If I could say what you'd like to hear  
I'd whisper in your ear it's only temporary,  
but I've been taking you for granted  
and I thought you'd feel the same as me.  
It's time that I come clean,  
but for now can we just both pretend to sleep  
Sometimes the one you want is not the one you need...

"Mariana's Trench – By now"


	8. Chapter 8: Gonna Getcha Good

**Chapter 8: Gonna Getcha Good**

_-6 years before-_

Sasuke woke up and put a hand on his aching head: he must've been drunk the night before. He tried to stand up, but something was blocking him: there was a hand around his waist that was holding him close. While looking at the hand that didn't seem to want to let him go he realized that he was naked. What the hell had happened the night before? He looked at his surroundings and remembered that he was invited at Ino's party the day before and had a date with her. The person that was holding him close moved his head, so that some blond hair fell on his face. - 'it's probably Ino' – he thought as he took away the hand around his waist and stood up to find the bathroom to wash his face. His sorrow didn't facilitate the way he walked, but as he got to the bathroom and washed his face, he recalled that he had had very high phisical needs the last night and that he wasn't that drunk to act without his own will. - 'who the hell did I fuck?' - Sasuke couldn't remember anything. He had a total blackout and he could only remember a few things: he was at that fucking party, he had had a few strong drinks, he danced like a fool with Ino... and then? Sasuke decided to take a shower, maybe he would've been able to figure out more with a clean body. He got in the shower and started to wash himself as he remembered that he didn't only dance with Ino, he had also danced with a blond boy he had hated for so long: that boy was Naruto. He recalled that they were staring at each other the whole time, that he took a drink whenever he realized that he was staring at the other boy for no apparent reason and that his bitter rival was dancing with Tenten. How the hell did they end up dancing?

_He was staring at Naruto while Naruto took Tenten to the dance floor and they started dancing. He could tell that the other was drunk, since he didn't seem to be able to stand straight for too long, but Sasuke decided to turn back to Ino and forget about all things that had happened the last time at his own birthday party: it was an accident, but it was weird ending up screwing with the person you obviously hate. He had planned to seduce Ino in order to get into her pants, after all he was a young attractive man and his hormones were stronger than his own brain. He needed sex. They were slow dancing, they turned around and Sasuke was again in a postion were he could stare at Naruto, who didn't seem to able to dance. Ino figured out that he wasn't paying attention to her, so she turned his head - "You're here with me. You're mine tonight" - she had said, and as she was about to pull him in a kiss, he saw Naruto fall over. Sasuke acted instinctively, he pushed Ino aside and stopped Naruto from falling. Ino blushed at the thought that she had been saved by her crush as she watched her "hero" saving them from falling. Naruto had closed his eyes and was surprised as he opened them, but Sasuke was even more surprised when he realized that he didn't act like this to save Ino, but more to save his eternal rival. - "Hello there, ladykiller" - Naruto said, as he got Sasuke's full attention._

"_Usuratonkachi, pay attention!" - Sasuke with a half angry and half embarassed tone. Naruto stood up and saw Tenten leave with her head down and a hand upon her face, obviously she was embarassed and regretted accepting to go to Ino's party with Naruto, but Sasuke could tell that the blond didn't really care about that, he continued to dance alone without worries._

"_Ahem!" - Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts as he heard Ino coughing and sighing to get his attention. He had been staring the whole time at Naruto._

"_Be right back Ino, I'm gonna get us another drink" - he said as he put a hand on his forehead and went to the bar. He drank his cocktail rather fast and got back to Ino._

"_Where are our drinks?" - Ino asked quite annoyed._

"_I thought we could do this without drinks" - Sasuke said seductively, making his dancepartner blush and grin excitedly. They were dancing once again, but Sasuke started losing control over his head, or better over his desire: he couldn't control his actions, it started with harmless stares, but the other man seemed turned on by the looks they shared and wanted more. _

_It was already 4 a.m when everyone started to go home, but Ino, Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura and Sai were still there. Sakura and Sai were on a date, but as friends, since the latter was socially inept and didn't really care for girlfriends or boyfriends. The music was loud, but it wasn't disco music, more like old pop music: he didn't know the song, but he could tell that Naruto seemed to like the song since he was singing along. Sasuke and Ino were dancing side by side, and his rival was dancing like a maniac coming closer and closer to them. Ino seemed disappointed as Sasuke turned his full attention to the other boy as they danced rather close and rather erotically. Ino said something, but Sasuke ignored her with a simple 'yeah' and went on with the dance. Sakura and Sai were laughing like maniacs as they saw the scene and couldn't believe what they were seeing: Sasuke and Naruto dancing? They hated each other's guts, but the alcohol seemed to bring them closer. They didn't care much more about the consequences and totally ignored the fact that something might have happened as they left the building. Sasuke and Naruto were alone now. The blond didn't care about personal space, invading completely the other's intimate space rubbing his body against Sasuke's. They were dancing like this for a long while, Sasuke's hands on Naruto waist as he could feel the other's ass on his sensitive part. Naruto was still singing along and Sasuke closed his eyes enjoying the other's voice, when he was suddenly pulled forward by his tie and he could feel a warm breath on his ear. - "I'm gonna getcha good" - Naruto was still going along with the song's lyrics, but this time he whispered it lustfully in his ear. It's were Sasuke lost completely control, he turned the other boy and grabbed him fastly by the collar to pull him in a sensual kiss. Naruto didn't bother to grand the other's tongue access and they shared those lustful kisses for the rest of the song, before they fell down on the floor and went on with what both had previously planned (only with the girls they dated that night)._

Sasuke's eyes widened as he felt sorrow in the back of his body. He stopped the water from pouring down on his body, he got out of the shower and looked at himself in the mirror. 'I didn't really fuck that dobe, did I?!' was the only thing he could think of, but he realized that the pain he was feeling wasn't only due to the headache. He was running down the stairs to get to the place he woke up and saw exactly what he hoped was a lie: Naruto was still lying there naked. He hit the wall on his right with his head a few times before he dared looking again at the blond. 'No, impossible! I didn't let...him...' Sasuke thought, as the other man seemed to wake up. Naruto was still sleepy and he didn't seem to realize where he was, what he was doing there and why he was there. All Sasuke could do is fall down to the floor while leaning against the wall and hold his head with his hands: he couldn't believe what they had done, what he had let the other do to him, but especially he didn't understand why he wanted it. He was craving for the other boy all night long, he wanted to feel the other boy, he wanted his eternal and bitter rival so bad.

"What the hell are YOU doing here and why are YOU naked?!" - Naruto was standing in front of Sasuke naked, as the latter realized that he also was still naked. And wet.

"Where's everybody else?" - Naruto went on - "I'm sure I was on a date with Tenten last night" - he added. That teme didn't remember what they did, did he?

"We're the only people left." - Sasuke said ashamed and annoyed. He really didn't want to deal with that morron that early in the morning.

"What? And why are you naked?"

"DOBE YOU'RE NAKED TOO!" - Sasuke screamed, not daring to look the other in the eyes. He ran his hands through his hair and hit his head against the wall behind him to be able to look at the ceiling. Naruto looked at himself before starting to panicking and tried to cover the intimate parts with his hands.

"Don't look! Don't look, you fucking pervert!" - Naruto was screaming, his voice cracking as he ran through the room searching desperatly for his clothes, before running over one of his shoes and falling to the floor. Sasuke smirked and let out a small laugh thinking 'you weren't complaining last night'. He just loved the other's messy way of dealing with things, but his face turned almost suddenly serious as his mind reminded him that he was attracted to his enemy.

His thoughts were interupted as Naruto came back with a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Alright, I don't really get why I'm here with you naked, but the most important thing is: where the hell are my clothes?!" - Naruto said. He wasn't really that stupid to not realize what had happened, even because it's the second time that it happened, was he?

"They're over there, next to mine" - Sasuke answered. He found it amusing to tease the other and he couldn't wait to see the blond's reaction when he would find out what they did last night. He frowned again. Why the hell did he take it that lightly? He let himself being fucked by a guy and the worst part is that it was Naruto to top him. Why didn't it bother him? Why did he let that happen? Why the hell did he enjoy it?!

Naruto frowned as he saw his clothes mixed with Sasuke's. He turned slowly to look at them and then back at Sasuke, he did it a few times before grabbing his boxers and putting them on.

"Seems like this is just a nighmare, my head is messing again with me. I'll count until three, I'm gonna pinch myself and then I will wake up from this horrible dream" - Naruto said calmly. Sasuke was slightly annoyed by the other's naivety, but he remained silent watching the other make a fool of himself. Naruto counted down to three, pinched himself and opened his eyes hoping to wake up in his own bed, but it wasn't the case. He was still where Ino had thrown a party and Sasuke was still sitting in front of him, looking at him as if he was crazy.

"So, let me get this straight...we're both naked, right?" - Naruto asked. He didn't want to believe any of it.

"Hn" - was Sasuke's only answer.

"Our clothes are mixed together, right?" - Naruto continued calmly.

"Uhu"

"And we're both guys, right?" - Naruto asked. Sasuke looked at him more annoyed than usual. It was a stupid question, of course they were both guys! They had always been guys and always would be guys.

"We didn't...you know...do it again, did we?" - Naruto asked worrying about the answer he would get.

"What you don't say, Usuratonkaci." - Sasuke rolled his eyes and looked at the floor. He couldn't deny his attraction anymore, though he really hated it. Naruto grabbed Sasuke and punched him in the face.

"You bastard! You raped me, didn't you?!" - Naruto was getting angry. He was still influenced by all the alcohol he had drunk the night before, and his hungover didn't help at all to think straight.

"I didn't you asshole! As if I would need to rape someone to get sex!" - Sasuke stated almost screaming, while he kicked the other in the stomach. They started fighting, like they always did. Same old, same old.

"You brokeback-mountained me!" - Naruto stated, while grabbing the other's arm and throwing him against the wall.

"What does that even mean?" - Sasuke asked back, getting up and puching Naruto in his face. Bruises were coming up on both bodies.

"You screwed me, you pervert!" - Naruto stated while wiping away the blood that was running down his lips. He looked at the blood and kicked Sasuke violently in his sensitive part, making the other fall to his knees.

Sasuke was whining in pain, but eventually managed to get up and kicked the other so hard to make him fall to the floor. Sasuke couldn't stand the pain and fell over his rival, before saying with difficulty - "You got the drop on me, dobe!".

Naruto opened his eyes and found Sasuke's face close to his and he couldn't believe all this. It happened the exact same thing the first time at Sasuke's party, they woke up and fighted. Only the last time it was Sasuke who had had the upper hand. What the hell did they think? Sasuke opened his eyes and they shared a deep look.

"Alright. Listen, this is probably because none of us got laid. These are just hormones, right? It would have happened anyway. And the alcohol. Of course there was alcohol. We're manly guys, we're not gay, we hate each other. You probably thought I was Ino, I probably thought you were Tenten and this is how it happened." - Naruto stated.

"Right. I would never do something like that with _you_" - Sasuke pointed out, even if he knew that he would've never done something he didn't want, even when he was drunk.

"So, back to rivals then" - Naruto said while getting dressed and he left the local shortly after.

A few days later they both met at the match, after all they were both in the same team. They had had an awesome match and they were celebrating, holding up Rock Lee that had scored the last goal that had lead to their victory. Their team got to the locker room and he had seen Kiba and Rock Lee laughing and entering in the showers, he figured out that Naruto would be there, so he decided to wait until no one else was there. What he didn't know is that Naruto had had the same idea, hoping that he wouldn't have to shower with Sasuke. He got into the shower and started washing his body, as he heard Naruto getting in. The blond frowned when he saw Sasuke showering in front of him.

"What are you doing here, teme?!" - Naruto asked angrily.

"I could ask you the same thing, dobe!" - Sasuke answered, annoyed by the other's presence. He really didn't want to meet the blond in the locker room, especially not while showering naked after what had happened between them.

"I waited patiently so that I didn't have to see you."

"Oh, I didn't know you were that smart, Usuratonkachi!" - Sasuke rolled his eyes, while continuing to soap his body. Naruto just glared at him before going to a shower head far away from Sasuke, but apparently it wasn't enough far. They were showering, but they just couldn't help to stare at each other. Sasuke didn't know what to do, he could barely stand the fact that he was attracted to the person he had always despised, how could he stand the desire growing inside of him to touch the other? He wanted the blond, he needed him, but how could he get him? The chance was presented to him on a silver plate: Naruto slipped and fell on Sasuke, resting his head upon the other's chest. Naruto lifted his head and found Sasuke looking lustfully at him. He grabbed the blond by his hair and pulled him a kiss, while running his hand down the other's back, while the other was lying still upon Sasuke, still not realizing what was happening. Both went with it and made it in the shower without worrying about their surroundings. They didn't care if they were in a public area, they didn't care that they hated each other's guts and they didn't care about the consequences. All that mattered was that they needed each other and nothing would stop them from getting what they wanted.

Naruto was nailed on the wall with his legs wrapped around Sasuke's waist and biting the other on the neck, while the other was moaning in pleasure.

After 15 minutes of pleasure they both fell to the ground while leaning against the wall. Both were breathing hard to recover their coolness, and before Sasuke could do or say anything Naruto stared at him with a pleased grin.

"This isn't normal" - Naruto said. Sasuke stared at him and both let out a laugh. They didn't know why, but they felt relieved.

"We're supposed to hate each other, not to fuck each other!" - Naruto added shortly after. Sasuke grinned and looked down - "It's the third time, we can't blame it on the alcohol now." - Naruto stated. Both knew that they wanted it, there was no point in denying it. Sasuke just nodded and let out one of his infamous 'hn's.

"Listen, I need to get laid as much as you do. Why don't we start one of those 'sex relationships'? There's no point in ignoring what happened, only to end up in the same mess at another occasion." - Naruto said. The blond widened his eyes, as if he didn't really mean what he said, as if those words just slipped out of his mouth.

"You mean like friends with benefits?" - Sasuke asked.

"Yeah, something like that" - Naruto was scratching the back of his head. Sasuke could feel that the other felt a little awkward with what he had said.

"Hn, as if I'd ever be your friend" - Sasuke said and Naruto gave him a glare, but he added shortly after - "agreed."

He didn't really understand why he had agreed to do such a thing, he had never agreed to anything the other said, but this seemed like a good idea to deal things with. He knew that ignoring the other boy would've brought him to desire him even more and maybe they would've ended up doing something stupid in front of the others. He needed sex, apparently he needed also his rival's body and having sex with another person a few days a weeks couldn't harm anybody, could it?

* * *

In time you're gonna be mine

Just like I should

I'll getcha good.

I've already planned it

Here's how it's gonna be

I'm gonna love you and

you're gonna fall in love with me

"Shaina Twain – I'm gonna getcha good"


	9. Chapter 9: Since I'm alone

**Chapter 9: Since I'm alone**

Naruto shut the door and Sasuke was looking perplexed and shocked at it, as if the door could explain what had happened. He rushed to the nearest window and saw the blond boy running to his car with his head down and heading away from there. He hit his head against the window and couldn't help the anger building up inside of him: he blamed himself for what had happened. How could he be so blind to not realize that Naruto would have left anyway someday? He thought it could've been for ever like this, just the two of them sharing those passionate moments together , he needed that blond usurantokachi so much and he didn't want to believe that it was over.

He was still confused about Naruto's words and he needed to talk to him, he needed to clarify things: he didn't want to be left behind without any apparent reason.

He walked back to the bedroom and sat on the bed, looking rather hurt to the floor: he loved to think that there was someone who needed him, despite him being a real duchebag. He thought that Naruto was happy to be with him for those hours, he felt that the other was relieved whenever they spent time together, so why the sudden change? He even enjoyed their last time, why wouldn't he want to do it again? Why would Naruto want to leave everything they had behind, as if nothing ever happened?

'Two people can read each other's thoughts once they bump their fists', he didn't even recall saying that phrase in his whole life to Naruto, though it was something his older brother used to tell him.

_He was four years old or so, he was walking home when he noticed a lonely kid sitting on a swing. That kid was staring at the other kids playing and looked kinda sad. He didn't know who this boy was, but he didn't care much about finding out, so he continued to pursue his way home. Shortly after, he heard some voices._

"_Look who's here, it's that dumb, annoying kid" - Sasuke turned around and found two other kids around the lonely boy, obviously teasing him._

"_Hey, are you crazy? He's nothing like that" - said the taller kid of the two. - He's not a kid, he's a monster." _

_Both kids started to laugh, while the kid on the swing just glared at them, but refused to do anything._

"_What? Aren't you going to say anything? You're usually always so annoying!" - Sasuke stopped and was looking at what was going to happen, after all he wasn't too behind the other two boys._

"_Leave me alone..." - the lonely kid muttered and looked at the ground, closing his eyes in discomfort._

"_Uh oh, the monster's going to attack!" - the two boys started laughing again, while the kid on the swing was about to leave, but was stopped by one of the other kids that was teasing him._

"_We're not done. You remember what you did to us, don't you?This is our payback!" - the taller kid said before pushing him off the swing. He fell on the ground and had hit his head, little bruises building up on his face, while the other two kids seemed to enjoy his pain. The lonely kid looked up at them in anger, tears building up in his eyes while he looked at them with a deadly glare._

"_Leave me alone!" - he screamed while trying to get away from there, but was pushed down again._

"_I think we made it quite clear that you're going to regret your pranks on us."_

"_And I think he made it quite clear that you're going to leave him alone!" - Sasuke had thrown a rock against the two boys who turned around to look at the boy who had had the courage to mess with them. - "RUN!" - Sasuke screamed at the other boy and he seemed to follow his instructions. Sasuke didn't know why he wanted to protect him, but he felt like it was his duty to help that lonely boy, even though he knew that he wouldn't be able to deal with two bigger boys alone._

_The two kids were angry and signaled that they were ready to beat the hell out of him, but all he could do was to run away in a situation like this. He started to run, but he knew that they were much faster than he was and that they would eventually get to him, but as he was about to run around a corner he felt something grab him and pull him in a bush. He was about to scream, but he suddenly felt a finger on his lips apparently trying to keep him from making any noises. It was the kid he had helped before, he couldn't believe that he had come back to help him. Their attention was taken by some voices that were screaming - "where did he go!?" - while looking around, and as they got near the bush where they were hiding, the kid that had saved him put a leg out of the bush, making the two other boys fall to the ground. Sasuke started to laugh, while the other kid grinned widely and satisfied, but a shiver ran through both's bodies when they heard the two boys saying - "He's hiding in the bush! I'm gonna kill that little brat!"._

_The other boy didn't stutter long, before he grabbed Sasuke and let both of them rolling down the hill behind them. Sasuke closed his eyes instinctively and only opened them when he realized that they had stopped from falling, finding two bright blue eyes staring friendly at him and a hand that offered him help. He smiled back and took the hand, both stood up and got to a tree to sit down. Both laughed at what had happened, they recalled the other two boys' reaction as they had made fools out of themselves and they realized that it was fun. Sasuke closed his eyes, but as he opened it he found the other boy grinning widely and with a fist in the air, directed to him. Sasuke looked confused at the fist, but eventually figured out what he had to do, and as he bumped his own fist with the other's, he smiled warmly._

_Their smile faded when they realized that two big shadows were covering them and when they heard an 'ahem', they turned their heads only to find two angry kids glaring angrily at other two kids were about to hit them, but they were stopped by someone who lifted them up as if they were feathers. Sasuke looked up and couldn't believe who was standing in front of them. - "Nii-san!" - he screamed happily to see his older brother Itachi. Itachi had put the other boys down and was glaring deadly at them - "try to lay just one finger on my little brother and you're going to die" - he said to them and before he could say anything else, they ran away._

"_Sasuke, we have to go home" - Itachi said, grabbing his hand and leading them home, while Sasuke followed him and turned his head to smile one last time at the other boy. _

"_You liked that boy" - Itachi said, Sasuke looked up and looked confused at his smiling brother. - "when two people bump their fists they're able to read each other's thoughts" - Itachi continued as they went home. He had never seen that boy again._

It was weird, the only time he had bumped his fists with someone was with that boy, but he never told anyone literally about the "fist" thing and yet, whenever he fighted Naruto it was like he could read the other's thoughts. He was always the winner in their fights, but he never really got to hurt the other because of his bright blue eyes, who reflected an unfortunate and crying soul. Sasuke was staring at the floor and noticed something blue on the floor that was sparkling as the sunshine hit it. He lifted it and he noticed that it was Naruto's necklace. Sasuke stared at it for a few minutes and could see Naruto's eyes and smile in it. He snapped out of his thoughts as he heard a voice.

"Whose is that?" - Ino was leaning at the bedroom door, with a half serious and half teasing look on her face.

"None of your business" - Sasuke answered coldly. They had a strange relationship, they didn't like each other, but they went along pretty good since they had to "share" a home to impress the press.

"So, you don't deny that someone spent some time with you, ne Sasuke-kun?" - Ino continued teasing the other man, while he only gave her an unimpressed glare.

"You really think someone's worth my spare time?" - Sasuke sounded annoyed, but Ino knew better when he was lying.

"These say something completely different" - Ino pulled her hand from behind her back to show what she had found: empty condom packs. Sasuke widened his eyes, he had never been that reckless before, he had always made sure that he disposed of them, but that day was different. All he could do now was face palming himself, hoping that Ino wouldn't bother him.

"I knew it all along, no man is able to resist, not even the cold hearted Uchiha" - Ino winked while sticking her tongue out before laughing happily, shaking the empty condom packs in the air. Sasuke didn't find it that amusing, actually at all, he had a serious killer look on his face.

"Seriously, how old are you? You're supposed to be 25 Ino." - Sasuke stated rather annoyed.

"C'mon Sasuke-kun! You can't tell me that you didn't do this every saturday! By the way, who's the lucky one?" - Ino asked extatic, she still couldn't believe that she had caught him red handed.

"I think I told you that it's none of your business" - Sasuke muttered. His life was nobody's business, he didn't need to tell anyone about what he did in his free time.

"Pretty boy must be quite important to you, if you still deny it. Are you trying to protect yourself or him?" - Sasuke frowned at Ino's statement, but he was able to gain his senses pretty fast.

"What the hell are you talking about? I'm not protecting anyone and I'm surely not gay!" - Sasuke was raising his voice. He wasn't gay and he was surely not in denial. He didn't need anyone in his life, he just wanted to spend time with Naruto.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Keep telling that to you" - Ino wasn't at all convinced of Sasuke's words. - " Who would ever want someone who only thinks about himself and that doesn't even have the courage to tell the truth when he's caught? Must be a real mor..."

"He's not a moron!" - Sasuke interupted Ino, his words slipping out of his mouth. Ino smirked gloatingly, while all Sasuke could do was to widen his eyes as he realized what he had said. He turned his head to the other side.

"You can't fool me, Sasuke-kun. Whether you like it or not, I know how your brain works." - Ino said as she placed her index finger on his forehead and pushed him slightly while smiling warmly. Sasuke frowned with an annoyed look on his face, while he rubbed his forehead with his left hand.

"We've been living for almost two years together, I know when you hide something and I knew that you were hiding a secret affair. Why else would you even propose to help me out?" - Ino asked, but she received no answer. Sasuke wasn't really in the mood to fight back and to defend himself, what had happened earlier that day was still getting to him.

"Who would be able to melt Sasuke's frozen heart? A pretty boy, always smiling and laughing, never worrying about consequences, just enjoying the moment. Maybe a redhead? No, no, he has definitely light hairs and those two dark imposing eyes! Wait, no, those light blue eyes that when you stare into them it's like falling in an ocean!" - Ino was still teasing the Uchiha, she had her eyes closed to look more serious, but she opened one eye to look exactly at the other's reaction. He frowned more and closed his eyes, she knew she had nailed it.

The thought of Naruto came up again as he seemed to forget what was around him pretty fast. He had still had Naruto's necklace in his hands and was staring at it now. Ino noticed that there was something tormenting him and she wanted to help him out, after all they were somewhat friends, even if Sasuke would deny having any friends.

"Seems like it isn't just some random affair, is it?" - Ino asked, she tried to sound as sweet and caring as possible, she didn't want to hurt him. Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts, turned his head to the floor and stared at it. He didn't want to talk about anything, he didn't even understand why he cared that much about it.

"You have feelings for him, don't you?" - Sasuke widened his eyes and turned his head to Ino, looking at her as if she was crazy.

"I'm not..."

"Sasuke-kun, you've never protected anyone else before. You cut me out before I could even finish my sentence, when I was saying that he was a moron. Also, you would never let something bad get so much to you, unless it's about a person you really care about. Just like when Itachi died." - Ino stated. Sasuke didn't want to buy any of it. How could he love someone? Uchiha's have no feelings, they just live for power, for the power of fame.

"Don't you dare to talk about me as if you knew who I really am or what I've been through!" - Sasuke screamed at her, he was getting angry. Ino looked sadly to the floor and Sasuke seemed tried to calm down. He didn't mean to sound that harsh, but he was getting sick about everything, so he stood up and left the appartment. Ino remained silent sitting on the bed, she knew that Sasuke needed some time for himself.

He was just walking around, kicking whatever he found on the floor that was getting in his way. 'What the hell does she know about what I feel? She doesn't know shit about me!' Sasuke kept saying while trying to convince himself, but deep down inside he knew that she was right. He didn't care about anyone around him, but when his brother died he felt hollow and alone, more than he already was. He didn't seem to want to eat, he didn't seem to want to drink, he didn't seem to want to talk, he didn't seem to want to go on with his life. The only thing that kept him from suicide thoughts was Naruto. He could talk to him easily, he was the one who was able to lift his mood a little, he was the one who was able to let him forget his sorrow, and yet they only spent a few hours per week together. He put a hand in his pocket and took out Naruto's necklace. It made him happy to see Naruto wear it, Sasuke didn't even realize that he had never taken it off ever since the blond's birthday. While Sasuke was in his thoughts about the other man, he bumped into something.

"Pay attention, teme!" - the other man turned around to face whoever bumped into him and frowned. Sasuke was holding his head with his eyes closed, but as he opened his eyes he found not too far away Naruto that was walking away pretty fast. He widened his eyes and followed the other man, running.

"Naruto, wait!" - Sasuke screamed, but the other boy didn't seem to care about it. He rushed to Naruto and was able to grab his arm.

"What the hell has gotten into you? Why wouldn't you answer my calls?" - Sasuke said bitterly, but the other man didn't want to talk and turned away, trying to get away. Sasuke squeezed the other's wrist harder in order to make the other stop, but the Naruto turned around and punched him in the face. Sasuke let go of Naruto, only to kick him in the back in order to make the other fall down to the floor. The only way for them to comunicate was through fist fights.

Naruto stood up, but was grabbed by Sasuke and pulled in an alley so that nobody would bother them. He had pushed Naruto to the wall, his arm pushing slightly against the other's throat as the other was trying to get out of his grasp.

"Why are you avoiding me?" - Sasuke screamed into the other's face, while lowering his his arm from the other's throat.

"It's over..." - Naruto managed to say with effort, breathing hard.

"Why? Why is it? Didn't you enjoy our time together?" - Sasuke asked bitterly, with an invading look in his eyes.

"I did..." - Naruto said, staring at the floor in order to not face the other.

"Then why? Am I not good enough? Did I do something wrong?"

"No..." - Naruto closed his eyes, hoping it would be over soon. He was surprised as he felt his head being lifted and as he felt two hands pulling his face closer to Sasuke's in order to share a kiss. Naruto couldn't help it and he deepened the kiss, as Sasuke put him his necklace around the neck. Naruto opened his eyes and pulled away from the kiss, looked first at the necklace and then again at the ground, while Sasuke looked at him incredulously and confused.

"Why don't you want this?" - Sasuke started questioning the other again. He didn't want to believe that Naruto would want to throw away all they had.

"I..." - Naruto frowned and closed his eyes, his whole body trembling.

"Aren't you happy with us?"

"NO! I'm not!" - Naruto screamed, punching the other so that he was able to get away from there, but his body didn't seem to be able to leave, there were so many things left unsaid.

"Naruto, you..." - Sasuke had widened his eyes at the other's statement.

"I'm not happy, Sasuke, I'm not! I can't do this anymore, I can't stay with you and deny my feelings, hoping that you would someday realize what you mean to me. I don't want to live I lie anymore, Sasuke!" - Naruto screamed desperatly at Sasuke. He didn't want to sound weak, but his feelings were coming up and showing.

"Wha-what do you mean?" - Sasuke was shocked. He didn't understand clearly what the other was talking about.

"Whatever I say, you won't understand, will you?" - Naruto turned around to stare at the wall in front of him. He didn't want to show the other man the weak part of him, so he tried to hide it. - "Sasuke, I've never thought of you as a rival. You've always been my goal, my whole entire life I wanted to be just like you. After our first accident I realized that I needed you, but I kept denying it, hoping that it would go away, but as the years passed my feelings for you grew stronger. You made me feel like I was someone important, you made me feel whole and I've always hoped that you would feel the same as me. I genuinely thought you would be able to love me, Sasuke..." - he added shortly after, his words slipping out of his mouth.

Sasuke didn't know how to deal with it, his heart was skipping fast from the shock of hearing those words, and yet he wasn't able to move, nor to speak.

"Naruto, I..." - Sasuke wanted to say something, he was staring at the man in front of him, but he didn't manage to say anything else.

"Stop it, Sasuke. I don't want any secrets in my life, I want something I can hold onto. You will be able to forget me eventually, so please just leave it as it is. There was nothing other than sex between us, just pretend that nothing ever happened." - Naruto turned to face the other, as he walked past him to leave Sasuke behind. Sasuke was looking at him in shock, he seemed to be in a kind of trance, but he snapped back into reality as Naruto was turning around the corner and began to run.

"Naruto!" - Sasuke screamed and added a silent - "I...you..." - shortly after. He didn't even realize what he was saying, all he realized was that he had lost Naruto, forever. Anger started to build up as he smashed his fist against the wall in front of him, over and over again. After a while he calmed down, leaned against the wall and let himself fall down to the ground, when he grabbed his head between his hands and closed his eyes to suppress his feelings. He stayed there for half an hour before he walked back to the appartment, but stopped in front of the restaurant Naruto worked at. He stared at it and he seemed to see Naruto inside of it working, the blond turned around and waved at him smiling happily. Sasuke heard a car honk and it made him snap out of his thoughts as he realized that he was in the middle of the road. Why did it get to him that much? He turned around and entered the appartment, shutting the door behind him before heading to his bedroom. He fell backwards on his bed, looking at the ceiling and frowning.

What if Ino was right? What if he had feelings for Naruto? No, impossible, how could he be in love with him? The only person who he had loved was his brother Itachi, he didn't love anybody else.

'you've never protected anyone else before', Ino's words rushed through his mind. He never needed to protect anyone, he didn't do friends and he didn't need to. He was a loner and he would die as a loner, but he thought that he could at least spend some more time with Naruto. 'Hn, I don't need him. I will go on with my life without him, all I need is success.' - Sasuke told himself over and over again, trying to convince himself to be able to live without anyone close in his life.

The weeks went on and Sasuke was the same old workaholic, but he didn't feel the same as before: he felt hollow and, even if he was a loner and enjoyed being alone, he couldn't bear his loneliness. Nobody seemed to notice, not even him, but Ino knew better that Sasuke wasn't the same.

"Sasuke-kun, we need to talk" - She took away his papers and pulled him to the kitchen.

"What the hell are you doing? Let me go!" - He screamed angrily. She let him go, but she also pushed him down to let him sit on the chair.

"Stop living a lie Sasuke. You're only hurting yourself!" - Ino stated with a serious look. He was about to stand up, but she pushed him down again, staring at him even more seriously. He wasn't in the mood to fight, so he just sat down and turned his head away from her, obviously not impressed and not interested in having a conversation with her.

"I don't know what you're talking about" - Sasuke stated.

"How can you not notice that you're changing slowly into someone you never wanted to be? You're just hiding your feelings and your whole life behind your work" - Ino knew that she was right. It's true that Sasuke had always been a workaholic, but he didn't devote his whole life to his work, unlike now.

"It's none of your business what I do in my spare time. I want to gain more power..."

"Shut up. Your business is at the top right now, Uchiha corporations couldn't do better right now" - Ino stated worried about Sasuke's wellbeing, but all Sasuke did was to frown and to look at the window, still trying to get away from the conversation.

"So what? I don't think it should be a problem since I'm the one who's providing you with money and more success" - Sasuke stated unimpressed. Ino was getting angry, she wasn't at all after his money, nor after success.

"Sasuke-kun you're going to lose control like this! Ever since Naruto..." - Ino stopped. She widened her eyes as she realized that she went too far, also Sasuke's reaction made her even more nervous, the Uchiha widened his eyes too and was starting to twitch one of his eyes, obviously losing his coolness.

"W-What did you say?" - Sasuke asked, his body starting to shaking a little from his nervousness. Ino looked down at the floor, she didn't want to say that name again, also because she didn't want Sasuke to know that she knew about them, but it didn't really matter anymore, did it?

"Since Naruto-kun left you've been changing" - Ino stated and closed his eyes, sighing after letting the words out.

"Don't you dare to say that name ever again!" - Sasuke screamed, closing his eyes and turning his head to the floor.

"Sasuke, if you love him you should be with him, not with me" - Ino said, she was worried about Sasuke and she knew that he felt much more about Naruto than he'd ever confess.

"What the hell makes you think that I had something going on with Naruto? And where the hell did you get the idea that I'm in love?! I don't do those stupid things, I would never..."

"I heard you whispering his name softly in your sleep" - Ino smiled warmly at him. Ever since they started to live together, she saw how happy Sasuke looked in his sleep, he had a real smile on his face while sleeping, not the usual smirk he gives everyone else. Though, he had never said any names before, he just referred to the person in his dreams as 'usurantokachi', but since some weeks she could hear him somehow begging to a 'Naruto'.

Sasuke opened his eyes and stared at Ino, incredulously.

"Sasuke-kun, forget about your huge ego and come to terms with how you feel about him" - Ino tried to convince him, after all it was only for his interest.

"Says the one who still denies her sexuality" - Sasuke stated, trying to stop the conversation with little "payback" formed with words. Ino frowned, she was good at giving advices, but she was just doing the same as her housemate. She sighed and stared at the ceiling.

"You're right, it's time we both face who we really are and how we really feel" - Ino raised her index finger, trying to sound convinced, while in reality she didn't want to face the problems that would show up when she came out of the closet to the rest of the world and, more importantly, to her father. Sasuke was just staring at her annoyed by her answer. He didn't really think that Ino would go that far.

"I don't care about what you do, but I don't need to do anything. I'm not..." - Sasuke stopped. He was about to say that he didn't have any feelings for Naruto, but his mind didn't seem to agree with the way things were going. Naruto showed up again in his thoughts, just like the past weeks and he realized that what Ino said was true: he was changing. He could now see that he was feeling hollow, he didn't care about anything around him, at least more than usual, he usually skipped some meals to be able to go on with his work, he didn't seem to sleep much and when he did he dreamed about Naruto, the dreams always started sweet and pleasantly, but turned into nightmares most of the times. He widened his eyes and stared at his hand: there was a little scar he got during a serious fight with Naruto, where they had used real kunais to settle their problems. He stared at it for a while, before clenching his fist and looking back at Ino, who was smiling warmly back at him.

"You love him" - Ino said, closing her eyes to be able to grin widely. Sasuke just stared at her with no emotion on his face, but he didn't seem to deny it nor to want to answer. He thought about it for a moment, remembering Naruto's words: ' I can't stay with you and deny my feelings, hoping that you would someday realize what you mean to me'. He had hurt the other man and he didn't even realize it, though he was able to read the other's thoughts. Why did he never care about what Naruto thought? He didn't believe the other's thoughts were real, but why couldn't he see the seriousness in those blue eyes of his? Though, thinking about it, Naruto's eyes sparkled everytime he looked into them, but all he saw was the reflection of his own dark and cold eyes. He didn't bother to look behind it, or when he did he would lose his senses, it was like 'falling in an ocean', like Ino described. 'This is what you feel, this is all you feel', Sasuke remembered the scene, his face turning serious with some hints of sorrow. His heart started to beat slowly and sadly, as if it wanted to stop at any moment. Naruto was just a toy for him that he would use to forget everything around, yet he enjoyed the other man. Was it really just sex? All those things they did, were they just meaningless fucks?

_It was a few years ago when Naruto was walking home alone, when three guys stopped him and started questioning him. Naruto didn't answer and tried his best to get away from them, but they didn't seem to agree. He then said something and they nailed him to the wall, punching and kicking him. Sasuke found himself looking at the scene, he didn't understand why he was there and he didn't know what he was doing there, but his body moved on it's own and he found himself fighting three guys. He had a hoody on, so they didn't notice who he really was, but they were angered by the disturbance and that anger drove them to pull out some knives. Sasuke knew how to deal with them, so they turned to hurt Naruto, in order to get vengeance on both guys. Sasuke rushed to stand in front of Naruto and was able to dodge the first knife, but the second was about to hit Naruto, so he sacrificed his arm and let the knife hit him instead. Despite his wounded arm, his anger gave him more powers that made him able to beat the hell out of those three guys and they retreated. Sasuke gave them a deadly glare and it seemed as if his eyes turned red when he watched them run away, but he turned his attention to Naruto when he heard him whispering 'Sasuke' as he fell down, losing his conciousness. He was able to catch him while the other was falling, in order to prevent the blond from more pain, he lifted the other's legs with his right arm while lifting Naruto's upper body with his left arm and took him to the nearest hospital._

_Naruto had been in a coma for a few days and the only sign of life he would give was a word once in a while and it was Sasuke's name. Sasuke knew that Naruto had seen him, but he didn't want the other to know it, or better, he didn't want anyone to know about it. Naruto woke up after a few days, asking about what had happened and hoping to hear something about Sasuke, but the nurse didn't tell him anything about it, she just answered that his mind made it up while he was in a coma, because his saviour Sasuke had pretended it. Naruto knew what that he had seen Sasuke, but after a while he convinced himself that it was only a dream, but what he didn't know was that Sasuke would always visit him at late night and watch him sleep through the window._

"_I think it would make him happy to see you. He's always asking about you" - the nurse said smiling. She knew that it would help Naruto a lot, since he seemed to care about Sasuke._

"_No, he doesn't need to know." - Sasuke merely said, before leaving silently the hospital._

He used to keep and eye on Naruto whenever he could, always made sure that he was alright and always made sure that he didn't get involved in any chaos. He had protected him instinctively, 'you've never protected anyone else before, unless it's a person you really care about'. He did care about Naruto, he wasn't just a meaningless fuck once in a while, he was the one and only who was able to make him smile for real. He...had feelings for Naruto? It all made sense: he couldn't help his attraction towards the other boy, he could barely stand one week without him, he felt protective towards him, he didn't want to lose him and he was the only one who made him feel happy to have someone around.

"See, I told you you have feelings for him" - Ino said after a while, pointing at the slight blush that appeared on Sasuke's face. He shook his head and looked at her confused. Why was his body reacting like this? He had never blushed before, or at least he thought so.

"And I think you've felt like this for a long time, but never allowed your feelings to lead you" - Ino continued while Sasuke was still looking rather confused back at her.

"Open up your mind, Sasuke-kun. You're not as cold hearted as you want the others to believe...and there's one person out there who knows that too and is just waiting for you" - Ino smiled warmly at him, running her hand through his hair. Sasuke fixed his hair, obviously annoyed by Ino's action.

"Don't touch me. I'm going to rest" - Sasuke said before heading to the bedroom. Ino was still smiling 'cause she knew that he would eventually come to terms with his feelings, but she frowned as she realized that she also had to make a big step: an open declaration. She sighed and put a hand on her forehead.

"Sasuke-kun! There's a letter for you!" - Karin squealed as she opened fastly Sasuke's office room and got in.

"I think I told you to knock before you come in" - Sasuke answered annoyed. He was having an important meeting with his consultants Suigetsu and Juugo and he didn't want to be disturbed. Ino was also there, because she would've been the model for their tv spot.

"Sorry, Sasuke-kun!" - Karin said scratching the back of her head before handing Sasuke the letter.

"But the letter is addressed to Ino" - Sasuke stated. Ino was glancing at Karin that was obviously getting nervous.

"Yeah, I know, but I thought you would want to read it first!" - Karin said, she was glaring at Ino and she obviously didn't like her because she had still a crush on Sasuke. 'Maybe she's hiding something and maybe you will finally understand that I'm the right one for you, my dear Sasuke-kun!' she thought. Suigetsu glanced at Karin's odd behaviour, before bursting in laughter. Karin glared at Suigetsu before punching him.

"You can leave now, Karin" - Sasuke finally said to break the tension. Karin left, turning her head one last time to look at Sasuke. After Karin got out, Ino took the letter and opened it.

'Dear Ino,

I've been looking forward to this moment and after a long while of reflections I've decided to take the next step.

It's our anniversary and I'm planning on a surprise party for my beloved Hinata, you're invited of course. You can bring as many people as you want, the more the merrier! On the 25th of may in the Heaven Palace in Sapporo at 10 p.m.

Sincerely, Inuzuka Kiba'

A surprise party for Hinata? What was that idiot planning? Anyway, she couldn't miss it. Hinata had always been a close friend and the fact that she would be able to see all her old comrades again made her extatic.

"What's it about?" - Suigetsu asked curiously, with his usual 'im so cool' smirk. Ino didn't really go along with Sasuke's partners, especially with Karin, but she knew that Sasuke wouldn't go to the party without his 'consultants'.

"We've been invited to a surprise party thrown for Hinata" - Ino said.

"What? Really?" - Suigetsu asked extatic. He loved parties, well actually he loved to ruin them tearing couples apart. It was is hobby, nobody could blame him.

"It doesn't really concern you, but I guess you can come too" - Ino said a little annoyed.

"I won't go." - Sasuke stated headstrong.

"Forget it, you have to accompany me since we're a couple" - Ino stated as she looked at him skeptically. He wouldn't get it his way, especially after what she knew about him, and the fact that Naruto would be there made it more fascinating.

"Yeah Sasuke, you have to be there! I want to hear some embarassing stories about you and laugh maniacally at them while you die out of sheer shame!" - Suigetsu smirked enthusiastic, while Juugo just looked at him questioning himself about the other's sanity.

"I think Sasuke has to decide what to do, if he doesn't want to go he doesn't have to. I will stay here with him" - Juugo said. He had always been a silent person, but Sasuke was a close friend to him, despite being ignored by the latter. Ino glared at him and he just shrugged his shoulders in defense and closed his eyes. Sasuke smirked like a winner before drinking his coffee as if it were his trophy.

"You know, Kiba has a very friendly dog..." - Ino said slowly, trying to sound as convincing as possible. Juugo widened his eyes - "I bet he'll feel very lonely and sad at the party..." - Juugo stared at the now smirking blond woman.

"Sasuke, I think we should go to the party" - Juugo said before Sasuke spitted his coffee out on him. Sasuke was staring at all of them who were smiling at the thought of a party. Sasuke face palmed himself and let his head bang on the desk.

"C'mon Sasuke, it'll be fun!" - Suigetsu blurted out. He know not to piss Sasuke off, but he just couldn't hold his enthusiasm. Sasuke looked at him skeptically and annoyed.

"Yeah, Sasuke-kun. I bet you're going to have fun, maybe there are some old acquaintances you might like to see..." - Ino smirked at him, teasing him. Sasuke knew what she was referring to and he couldn't help his frown. She knew that he had to face the truth, he had to face Naruto, but the worst was that he knew it too.

* * *

As I sit here alone

thinking about everything that you said.

You know since I'm alone.

Well, maybe after all, I was better off dead.

Cause without you my life's gone down...

What do I do, when I find myself wanting to die?

"April Sixth – Dear Angel"


	10. Chapter 10: A born coward

**Chapter 10: A born coward**

_-25th May-_

It was 5 a.m when the alarm went on. Sasuke put angrily a hand on the alarm to shut it off, he didn't want to get up and he was pissed off to be woken at such an early time, but Ino didn't seem to share his same opinion.

"Sasuke-kun, wake up! You know we have a long journey before us and we have to go and get your friends"

" 'The hell, I don't care!" - Sasuke merely said, his voice still filled with sleep as he turned to the other side of the bed, but he felt uncomfortable and as he opened up his eyes, he found Ino close to his face frowning at him. Sasuke startled and Ino throw some clothes upon him.

"You'll better be ready when I come back, or you're gonna regret being born"

"I already do that." - Sasuke stated annoyed, but he reconsidered and did what he had been told to do as he saw the glare he received from his housemate. When Ino came back, Sasuke was ready and he called Suigetsu, Juugo and Karin, in order to tell them that he would go get them shortly.

They were sitting in Sasuke's car, Juugo was driving with Sasuke sitting on the left, while Karin got stucked in between Ino and Suigetsu in the backseats. Karin tried to complain about it, not only because she wanted to sit next to Sasuke, but also because she was surrounded by her two worst enemies: Ino and Suigetsu. She hated Ino because she was Sasuke's girlfriend and she hated Suigetsu because he would always disturb her and Sasuke-kun's "alone-time", do some stupid jokes about Karin's obsession and embarass her in front of her crush. She glared at both of them, but while Ino didn't seem to notice her, Suigetsu was smirking "friendly" at her, but something told her that there was more to that smile. 'He's going to find a way to ruin my night with Sasuke-kun' she told herself and frowned.

Sasuke fell asleep and he couldn't help but to dream about the party:

_It was dark, for some reasons he was a child and was crying sitting on the floor, when a shadow lifted his head and wiped his tears away. The shadow was fading, only to be replaced by a blurred figure that turned out to be a boy that he knew, the lonely boy on a swing he had helped once. The boy offered him his hand and Sasuke took it, his index and middle finger wrapped around the other's ones. They danced slowly and started to grow up, the little blond boy in front of him was replaced by a shadow with light blue eyes that were illuminating the darkness inside of the room as it turned out to be filled with people he knew from highschool. Everyone was staring at them, the shadow faded away and he found himself alone in a room filled with people who were staring at him as if he had done something wrong. He turned around and tried to run away from the crowd, but those hate filled eyes wouldn't leave him alone. He got to a dark corner and found Naruto sitting in the corner, but as the blond boy turned to him to look him in the eyes he died and faded to dust._

Sasuke woke up in shock, he was breathing hard and he found himself sweating. Nobody seemed to notice that he had woken up and he was relieved, as he turned his head to the window to look outside: what had he done?

After a few hours they had arrived to their hotel in Sapporo and as they were assigned their rooms for the week they started unpacking their luggage. Sasuke wasn't too amazed by the fact that he had to sleep in a hotel for one week, but Ino wanted to spend some more time with her old friends and she wanted to meet her old rival so badly: Sakura Haruno. She hoped that they wouldn't fight anymore, they had had both a crush on Sasuke in highschool and she didn't want to hurt Sakura if she was still in love with him.

"Sasuke-kun, we need to buy my dress for today evening!" - Ino stated. She knew that he hated shopping, but it was a way to make him forget about the party. He wasn't ready to face Naruto and she knew it.

"Can't you go alone? The shopping centre is just a few minutes from here, I even call you a taxi..."

"No way! We're in Sapporo, one of the largest cities in Japan. We have to be seen together and act like a couple if we encounter the press, or else they can get suspicious" - Ino stated.

"I thought you wanted to come out of the closet" - Sasuke told her smirking. He knew that she would have never done anything like that. Ino widened her eyes, she had expected Sasuke teasing her about the talk they had. She sighed.

"Alright, alright. I'll do it if I have to, but I don't think you're ready you coward" - Ino said seriously, still teasing the other.

"What did you call me?" - Sasuke said annoyed. He surely wasn't a coward and he didn't liked being called one.

"A coward. How would you call someone who doesn't have the guts to show his emotions to the world?" - Sasuke frowned at Ino's statement and one of his eyes was twitching.

"Says the one who's afraid to talk to her dad about..."

"Okay, you know what? I have something to do. Today afternoon we'll head to the mall to buy my new dress. Also, you could use a change of clothing too" - and before Sasuke could say anything else, especially about the "change of clothing" thing, Ino got out of the room.

She took her phone out and called her father.

"Ino, darling, what's up?" - Ino heared her father on the other line.

"Hey, daddy! I'm Sapporo right now, I wanted to talk to you about a thing...you have time?"

"Of course, I'm never busy if it comes for my little girl" - Inoichi said and Ino smiled warmly. Her father worked for the police headquarters of Sapporo at the Interrogation Force department and she frowned as she remembered her duty.

"Wanna meet me at the same old place?"

"Alright, I'll be there in an hour" - Her father said and hung up. They used to meet at a little restaurant they both liked whenever Ino was working in Sapporo. Her father was the most important person in her life and she didn't want to disappoint him.

Inoichi entered the restaurant and found his little girl sitting in the corner and waving at him. He got to her and she hugged him, they sat down and started to talk generally about their lives.

"Why isn't your boyfriend here?" - Inoichi asked after a while.

"Yeah, that's what I wanted to talk to you about..." - Ino said, stuttering a little out of nervousness. She wasn't ready to face her father.

"What? You broke up? That bastard, I always knew he wasn't good for you. He has those dangerous eyes..."

"Father, please. Just hear me out. We didn't break up, because we never needed to. We were not a couple." - Ino stated closing her eyes and turning her head to the floor.

"What? You weren't? But, why did you tell me he was your..." - Inoichi was confused, why would his daughter lie to him? He was interupted before he could finish the sentence. She had that bad habit to cut the others out when talking, but it was a sort of self defense whenever she was nervous or had problems.

"The rumor about me and the other girl was true. I was afraid you wouldn't accept me, so I made up something in order to don't upset you, but I don't want to live a lie anymore. Dad, I'm not into men..." - Ino said and looked sadly at the floor. Her dad widened his eyes as he looked incredulously at his daughter.

"What?" - Inoichi had raised his voice unconsciously and caused Ino to quiver. - "You li..." - Inoichi continued, but he stopped as Ino stood up and ran away, saying 'I'm sorry'. He just stared at her running away, but didn't find the courage to stand up.

Ino ran away from there as tears where starting to build up, while she turned her phone off. She didn't want to hear anyone, she felt brokenhearted at her father's reaction and she knew that she had destroyed their beautiful relationship that nobody else seemed to have. She walked around alone for a while to calm down and after a while she got back to the hotel.

"Sasuke-kun, we're ready to go to the shopping centre, aren't we?" - She said and before even getting an answer she took him by the wrist and pulled him out of their room. Sasuke wanted to complain about it, but Ino didn't care and continued to pull him towards the shopping centre. She needed to get what had happened out of her head and shopping was something she used to do to relax. They arrived pretty fast to the shopping mall, bought some dresses for the party and ate something at the restaurant. Ino was walking with Sasuke, her arm wrapped around Sasuke's as she realized that the media was heading towards them. Sasuke tried to get away, but Ino wouldn't let him.

"I've confessed to my father and got over it. Now I have to come out officially, and it's your turn too to tell the world" - Ino stated as she smiled first at Sasuke and then at the media. She was nervous, but she had to do it and she knew it.

"We're here live from Sapporo and we're trying to get an interview from the leader of one of the most successfull companies in the world and the fascinating blond model at his side. Will they finally declare their relationship openly?" - Both of them heared the interviewer speak louder as he was reaching them. Sasuke didn't like getting interviewed, he hated the spotlight and would always run away from it, but he couldn't help it now, he had to do this and he knew it.

After a few minutes, they were able to get away, but Ino took him to a men wears shop and picked some designer clothes for him, telling him to try them on. Sasuke looked skeptically at the clothes, there were various colored shirts, some cardigans, a suit and jeans in it and he didn't like it too much.

"I'm not going to wear..."

"Shut up, get in there and don't come out before you've tried those." - Ino stated serious. Sasuke got into the changing cubicle, waited a few minutes and got out, but was pushed back in. Ino didn't look amazed at all.

"Don't fuck with me, Uchiha boy. Get in there, change and let me see you wearing what I picked for you" - Ino said firmly. She knew that Sasuke didn't try the clothes out, but he wouldn't get it his way. Sasuke frowned and sighed, but did as he was told: he got out wearing the suit, it was black and more appealing to him he thought, but Ino shook her head in disagreement; after a while he got out of the changing cubicle wearing light jeans and a blood red cardigan over a black shirt, but Ino thought it wasn't suited for the type of party, it was still too serious; a few minutes later Sasuke got out with a cobalt blue shirt tucked inside of some black jeans that weren't too tight, but neither too large and Ino looked at him suspiciously before going to him and unbuttoned the shirt until she could see some of his chest, nodding happily. Sasuke frowned and got back into the changing cubicle, he looked at himself in the mirror and hated to admit that it suited him. He knew he had to wear it whether he wanted or not, so he decided to tell himself that he looked good in it.

They also bought some some large Gucci leather ankle boots, a chain necklace and fingerless leather gloves to fit with the rest of the accessoires.

They got home, it was already 8 p.m and they were a little late. Ino had a high neck, sleeveless, purple dress on with a split at the height of her right leg that got bigger and bigger, in order to make the dress seem long on the back. It had also a diamond shaped neckline that got until the navel, but it was covered by a black trasparent net. She also wore long black net gloves and some black high heel boots, while her hair was tied in a high braided ponytail that ended with a curly mess of golden hair.

Sasuke on the other hand wore what Ino had picked for him and as he looked in the mirror he realized that his shirt had Naruto's outer eye color. He was staring at it thinking about the blond, as he felt two arms upon his shoulders.

"He's totally gonna be all over you" - Ino smiled at Sasuke through the mirror. Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts.

" What the hell are you saying?" - He asked perplexed with a slight blush on his face. He shook his head.

"You got the first step ahead of you, now you have to fight for him and get him back!" - Ino stated, now grinning widely. They heard someone shouting and breaking the door open, so they turned around and faced Karin, only to find Juugo and Suigetsu following behind.

"Sasuke-kun! Tell me that interview is a lie!" - Karin yelled frantic and desperate at the Uchiha.

"It's not" - Sasuke barely told.

"Told ya so" - Suigetsu leaned to Karin and whispered in her ear. She was startled at first, but eventually calmed down and smiled, obviously thinking (or better, hoping) that Sasuke didn't hate her.

"Alright Sasuke-kun, see you later" - Karin waved at him and got out of the hotel room, followed by Suigetsu and Juugo as always. - "You're gonna be mine tonight!" - she blurted out silently, but not silent enough for the others not to overhear. Juugo and Sugetsu stopped for a moment and looked perplexed at each other, before Suigetsu face palmed himself and told Juugo - "She's not that stupid, is she?" - but all the other did was shrugging his shoulders and continued to follow Karin.

The five of them got a little late to the party, but Hinata wasn't yet arrived and they were relieved. Karin tried to grab Sasuke's arm, but he gave her a glare and she frowned, but she didn't give up, she wanted to dance with him. She tried to pull him away. - "Stop it, Karin!" - he said annoyed. Karin let him go and looked sad to the floor, before she was left behind by everyone. She was sad and sat silently in a corner.

Sasuke didn't realize that he had hurt Karin, but he didn't care anyway. All he cared about was to find Naruto, but he didn't seem to be at the party.

Ino found some of her old friends and got to them to embrace them happily. She was glad that she could spend some time with her old highschool friends, but she didn't seem to find Sakura.

"I have no idea. She's really close with Hinata and Kiba, so she should be there" - Tenten answered to Ino's questions about where Sakura was.

Gaara was also there and was talking to Neji, when he saw Sasuke and company enter the local. He couldn't help but to stare at him angrily. Neji felt that Gaara wasn't paying attention to their conversation.

"What's wrong?" - Neji said, making Gaara snap out of his thoughts. He was still staring at Sasuke.

"That's the one that hurt Naruto" - the redhead let those words slip out of his mouth. Neji knew about his feelings for Naruto and he looked at Sasuke, remembering to know him from middle school.

"Isn't that Sasuke?" - Neji asked and Gaara nodded, starting to glare at the man as he clenched his fists.

"Don't do anything stupid Gaara" - Neji said as he put a hand on the other's back to calm him down.

"Yeah, I know" - Gaara merely said, before turning his attention to his friend, giving Sasuke one last glare that was returned by the latter.

There were a lot of people there, some of them were old highschool comrades and some of them were unknown people to Sasuke, but his attention was caught by the stage as he heard a voice saying - "Hinata will be there any moment, we're going to turn out the lights now, please wait patiently and silently" - Kiba said and got off the stage to turn out the lights. Everyone was silent and they were wondering what would happen next.

After a few minutes three people entered the local: Hinata had a headband over her eyes in order to not be able to see and she was being lead by Naruto and Sakura.

"Sakura-chan, where are we going? And where is Kiba-kun?" - Hinata asked nervously. She hadn't seen Kiba the whole day long and didn't even get a phonecall, but she was reassured by her friends that everything was alright.

"Sh, you're going to find out soon" - Naruto and Sakura said simultaneously, leading her to the stage before letting her go. The stage was the only thing that was illuminated by a small light and not even Sakura and Naruto knew what Kiba had planned, but they were told to leave the stage. They got into the crowd and waited patiently for what would happen next. Kiba took the headband off of Hinata and she slowly opened her eyes and looked perplexed at him.

"What's the meaning of this?" - Hinata asked nervously, she still didn't notice the crowd, nor did she knew where they were.

"Hinata, it's our anniversary. It's been the eighth year now, since the first time we dated and since our first kiss." - Kiba said, making Hinata blush. He did a sign and all the lights went on. Hinata stared at the people and was shocked as she glanced back at Kiba.

"Kiba-kun..." - she said, not understand what was going on.

"That's why I want to prove my love to you in front of all of these people" - Kiba continued smiling happily at the girl in front of him, blushing a little and taking her hands.

"And that's why I want to ask you this in front of our friends" - he went on and got on his knees.

"My beloved Hinata, please be my wife. Will you marry me?" - Kiba said as Hinata blushed heavily and fainted out of shock. She fell into Kiba's arms as the crowd was shocked at Kiba's statement. Even Naruto and Sakura didn't want to belive it, but they rushed to the stage to help Hinata. The girl gained her senses again and Naruto and Sakura stopped.

"Hinata, are you alright?" - Kiba asked worried.

"I do" - Hinata said after a moment smiling at him.

"You..." - Kiba wanted to say, but he was pulled in a kiss by his girlfriend.

Naruto and Sakura screamed out of happiness and started to applaud, only to be followed by the rest of the crowd. Everyone was looking at them as the music started to play and everyone started to dance. Kiba and Hinata got off the stage and started dancing too with their friends.

Sasuke turned around and saw naruto dancing and he couldn't help but to stare: Naruto looked handsome, his blond hair was spiked in a mohawk, he wore a bright orange shirt with a pulled up collar, a black opened coat, a pair of dark jeans that would gleam blue at the light and orange-blue sneakers. He couldn't help but to stare at him, while the other didn't notice his presence.

Ino did the same thing as she saw Sakura: the girl wore some black high heels with a few red stripes on them, a pair of black leggings under a red short dress and a black short cardigan on that would only cover her chest. Her light brownish hair would sparkle at the light and seemed to shine pink, it was short and tied in a ponytail, with longer bangs on her face. She couldn't help but to stare at her, while Sakura was dancing with Naruto.

Juugo and Suigetsu always followed Sasuke as they both realized that Sasuke was rather absent.

"It's that blonde boy you were talking about in the interview" - Juugo had said in Sasuke's ear, as the latter snapped out of his thoughts and turned around to face the ginger. Juugo was smiling at him, while Suigetsu looked skeptical at him.

"The one you don't hate, huh? Geez, makes me feel so much better about being your consultant!" - Suigetsu stated a little annoyed. Sasuke laughed at Suigetsu's statement as the latter just frowned.

"We both know why you're still following me" - Sasuke said, obviously implying something as Juugo looked at the other silver blond haired boy nodding in approvement.

"Yeah, so that I can tear you and Karin apart, but you've obviously ruined my hobby now that you've confessed" - Suigetsu rolled his eyes annoyed. - "By the way, where is that annoying redhead anyway?" - He asked after a some time, while looking around searching for her. Both Sasuke and Juugo shrugged their shoulders as Suigetsu left to find Karin. She was still sitting in the corner, looking sad and her eyes red. She had been obviously crying.

"Guess Sasuke likes more hot blond dudes rather than annoying redheads" - Suigetsu said and let out a small laugh as he had found her. She turned her head and looked down and Suigetsu became worried since he had already expected some punches on his face. He sat down next to her and just looked at her worried and caring.

"You know, Sasuke might not like you, but I believe there would be tons of other people out there who would die just to get to know you, maybe not as goodlooking as Sasuke is, but still..." - Suigetsu wanted to comfort the girl, even if he found her annoying and even if all they did was fighting. She turned her head to him, with still teary eyes and he smiled warmly at her.

"Oh, c'mon, stop it with that sad face, we're at a party!" - Suigetsu stated as he stood up. - "Let's dance!" - he said as he took her hand and lead her to the dancefloor. They danced together in a friendly way and she was forgetting about Sasuke and her crush. There were also some guys that tried to get near to her and danced around her, they obviously wanted to flirt. But who wouldn't? She had a black tight dress with violet flowers on it and black high heels. Suigetsu could see that she was having fun and he was happy that she was able to realize that she was a pretty girl as other guys danced around her. He looked at her smiling and was then about to leave the dancefloor, but something grabbed his wrist and pulled him back.

"I thought you wanted to dance" - she stated annoyed as Suigetsu gave her a skeptical glance.

"You seemed to have fun with those guys, didn't want to be a nuisance for once" - Suigetsu raised an eyebrow and smiled at her.

"Doesn't mean that you can't dance around me too!" - Karin stated. She didn't want Suigetsu to leave, after all he had been nice to her and made her smile for once that night. Suigetsu laughed and they started dancing again.

Gaara and Neji got to Naruto and danced with him and Sakura, they were having fun, but then it seemed that Gaara was cutting Neji and her off in order to be able to dance with just Naruto, so she left the dancefloor. She sat down and smiled at those two having fun, she didn't mind whether Naruto was dancing with a girl or a boy as long as he was happy. She looked at all those other couples dancing and she couldn't help but feel a little sad about still not having found someone who made her happy. Everyone of her friends had a partner: Naruto had Gaara, Hinata had Kiba, Tenten had Rock Lee, Temari had Shikamaru...she was the only one left out. Well, apart from Neji, but he was still trying to have fun.

Ino saw that Sakura was looking a sad at the people dancing, so she sat down next to her. Sakura turned her head to Ino.

"Long time no see, Sakura" - Ino said smiling. Sakura didn't smile back, they had never been friends, they had always been rivals and she didn't seem to want to talk to the blond haired girl.

"You're looking kinda down, don't waste your time here, stand up and dance" - Ino closed her eyes to look more convincing, but the other girl frowned.

"It's not like it's any of your business. By the way, you've got Sasuke-kun, why would you waste your time talking to someone like me when you can dance with your boyfriends?" - Sakura stated annoyed. She was over Sasuke, but not over the fact that Ino was the one who got him, it made her feel like a loser.

"We're not a couple" - Ino stated smiling at Sakura, causing the girl to raise an eyebrow.

"What? Why did you..." - Sakura wanted to go on, but stopped.

"Oh yeah, that's a funny story. Well, you know, to make it short, Sasuke was helping me, in a way. Actually he was more trying to help himself, but still. It was just fake" - Ino said.

"Why?" - Sakura asked. She didn't really believe what Ino was telling her.

"You see, I'm a lesbian. One night I got drunk and hooked up with a random girl at a party. The media found out and my father was not impressed. I lived a lie until a few hours ago, when I officially came out of the closet." - Ino said. She looked a little worried to the ground, still remembering about her father's reaction.

"Why would Sasuke help you?" - Sakura stated. Everybody knew that Sasuke didn't help anyone.

"He didn't do it for me, he did it to hide his feelings from the world." - Ino stated. Sakura was about to ask more about it, but Ino got closer to her ear and whispered - "he's into a really pretty boy you know very well".

Sakura widened her eyes and looked at Ino incredulously. Sakura looked over to Naruto and back to Ino, who was nodding still smiling.

"You're really serious about this?" - Sakura stated. Ino smiled and they both started to laugh. They were getting along good for once. They talked about this and that and they laughed for old time's sake, when they were still chasing the same boy and would fight over him. After a while Sakura and Ino both stared at Gaara and Naruto that were dancing rather close.

"This could be a problem" - Sakura stated and Ino just nodded, obviously thinking the same thing.

And it was a big problem.

The song suddenly changed to a song Sasuke remembered well: it was the song that was playing at Ino's birthday party, where Naruto and Sasuke got close for the second time. Sasuke was still staring at Naruto, the song made his heart beat faster and he became nervous as he had seen a redhead dancing rather close to Naruto. He recalled who he was, it was Gaara, a loner like him. They had lots of things in common, but they never got along, they had even fought once.

Sasuke clenched his fists together, as he had seen that that Gaara was getting closer to Naruto's face.

Gaara was trying to kiss him. Since he had confessed to Naruto he hadn't gotten an answer. Naruto explained that he wasn't ready yet for a relationship and that he needed time. He still had feelings for Sasuke, but he wanted to move on and Gaara seemed to be the perfect partner: he cared about him, he was the most important thing for him, he protected him and he was always there for him. The only problem is that he had always only seen him as a friend. He needed time to forget about his feelings for Sasuke and he needed time to fall in love with Gaara.

Gaara was getting closer, but Naruto wasn't ready.

"I'm sorry, Gaara. I'm not ready." - He said, causing Gaara to look at him sad, but eventually he accepted it and got back to dance with Naruto. Naruto felt bad about it and he tried to convince himself to kiss the redhead, while the other was looking into his eyes. They were getting close again, but something stopped them from kissing. Someone had grabbed Gaara and punched him in the face, causing the redhead to fall to the floor. Neji had seen the scene and him and Naruto sat down to Gaara, trying to stop his bleeding nose. Naruto was becoming angry as he clenched his fist and followed the shadow that had punched his friend. He followed him out on the balcony.

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" - Naruto screamed and was about to punch the other, but he stopped in place as the other turned around to face him. His eyes and mouth widened. What the hell was he doing here?

The silly and confused dances turned soon slow, as the loud and noisy music turned to a soft song. Couples started building and were dancing together slowly, as some guys were trying to get Karin's attention and asked her to dance. Suigetsu hated those slow couple dances, but he couldn't help but feeling a little jealous as he watched all those guys around Karin. He had never hated Karin as he wanted everyone to believe (including himself) and the real reason he wanted to tear Sasuke and Karin apart was because he kinda liked the redhead. He found her annoying and yet he was intriguingly attracted to her, he despised the way she treated him and yet he enjoyed her presence.

Those guys were creeping Karin out and it was clear that she didn't want them to bother her anymore, but as one man didn't like being rejected Suigetsu appeared in between of them.

"Leave her alone" - as he gave the man in front of him a deadly glare. He stretched out an arm as if he wanted to let Karin stay away from it, but the man did as he was told and left them, glaring one last time before turning to some other pretty girl dancing around.

"Geez, thanks. That guy was really annoying me" - Karin said as she fixed her glasses. Suigetsu smiled at her, closing his eyes, but he opened them fast as he felt someone grab his hand and turning him around. - "Let's dance now, idiot" - Karin said and smiled warmly at him. Suigetsu shrugged his shoulders smiling and danced with her. Their eyes were locked and they were smiling at each other as Suigetsu was about to get closer to Karin's blushing face.

Ino and Sakura had talked about a lot of different things and they realized that they shared the same hobbies. They didn't understand why they did never get along, it was maybe just because of their crush for Sasuke, because if anything they would've been the bestest of friends. They had both seen what had happened to Gaara and they wanted to get to Sasuke to calm him down, but as they got to the dancefloor thy weren't granted access that easily. They noticed that Naruto went after Sasuke and that Neji was taking Gaara to the toilet to take care of his wounds, so they decided to go back to the bar where they were sitting. Easier said as done: Sakura had grabbed Ino's wrist in order to not lose her, but those who were dancing were pushing them accidentally and she was about to fall. Ino grabbed her and was looking at her.

"I guess it's impossible to leave" - Sakura said, smiling nervously.

"Well then, let's dance" - Ino stated, still holding Sakura and helping the other girl to stand up.

"Huh?" - Sakura turned to face her.

"I thought you wanted to dance" - Ino said, and as Sakura was about to say something else she found Ino offering her a hand. - "So let's dance!" - Ino said and smiled, causing Sakura to blush a little, but she took the blond's hand eventually.

Sakura didn't really care that she was dancing with and old rival that was also a lesbian, all she cared about was that someone was caring about her and that she was having fun. Ino couldn't help but to be attracted to Sakura, but she didn't want to creep the girl out nor to destroy the friendship that was starting between them.

He didn't know what drove him to punch Gaara, he had done it instinctively, but he regretted doing it. Sasuke was jealous and he couldn't stand to see Naruto with another person, though he wanted the blond to be happy. That was the reason why he had regretted it.

"Sasuke?!" - Naruto screamed out loud in shock. The blond wasn't expecting to see him standing in front of him, did he?

"What are you doing here?" - Naruto added shortly after, still shocked.

"Ino was invited by Kiba, I came too" - Sasuke said. - "Listen, I'm sorry, I don't know what had gotten into me" - he added after a while.

"Why did you do it in first place?" - Naruto didn't expect him to act so recklessly. Sasuke walked towards the balustrade to get further away from the blond.

"I didn't want him to be so close to you" - Sasuke said. Naruto widened his eyes, he had never expected Sasuke to be so outright, the black haired man used to hide his thoughts. Naruto got closer to him and stood on his right side, both looking at the full moon that was shining upon them.

"You've always been so protective, ever since the first time we met. Do you remember? When we angered those two bigger boys?" - Naruto said and smiled.

"It was you?" - Sasuke looked at him a little shocked from the other's statement. But, it made sense now. They exchanged fist bumps, they had always been able to read each other's mind whenever they fought.

"Do you know any other blond nuisance who played pranks?" - Naruto smiled at him

"I guess you're the only blond Usuratonkachi I know" - Sasuke stated and both let out a small laugh, before imploring silently the moon again.

"You would always call me Usuratonkachi...though I always knew you never meant it literally." - Sasuke smirked and let out one of his 'hn's before closing his eyes. - "I remeber the first time I got rejected by Sakura, I tried to kiss her and she told me I was annoying and that I would act an idiot because I had no parents. I went away saddened." - Naruto said, confusing Sasuke. - "You know, I could hear you speaking to Sakura-chan afterwards." - he added. Sasuke turned his face to him, he remembered defending Naruto because of his childhood, but he didn't realize that Naruto heared it. - " 'You're the one who's annoying' you told her. Do you remember our fight at the same day? It was because you had offended Sakura-chan" - Naruto continued calmly, ad he started to laugh. Sasuke didn't answer, he just turned his head to the ground and looked at it while leaning with his arms on the balustrade.

"We used to fight a lot, didn't we?" - Sasuke stated. It was their way to comunicate with each other, through fists.

"Yeah, though I never understood why you didn't beat me to a pulp, you had always had the opportunity to and you even hated me."

"Guess I didn't hate you as much as I wanted you to believe" - Sasuke said and let out a little laugh, while Naruto smiled at him warmly. There was a long pause between them, both of them were enjoying the night.

"Some time ago, there were two guys that had seen us at a cafè before one of our usual 'meetings'. They followed me and wanted to know some personal informations about you, but I refused and they beated me. I didn't want to sell you out, so I didn't fight back. I woke up a few days later in hospital, I had been in a coma." - Naruto said as he stared at Sasuke and his reaction. The dark haired man looked up, but not at Naruto, rather staring into the nothing in front of him. - "You already know this story, don't you?" - Naruto added as he smiled warmly at the other. Sasuke was still staring at the now cloudy sky, but this time he frowned, not wanting to remember what had happened that night. - "The nurse didn't want to tell me the truth, she told me that I made up what I had seen, but I knew that I had seen you for sure." - Naruto told him. He wanted to hear what had happened that night, since he didn't know anything about it and he was sure that Sasuke knew something because of his reaction.

Sasuke walked away and didn't say anything, he was heading back to the party and left the local. Naruto looked at him walking away, but after he couldn't see him anymore, he followed him. He had lost tracks of the other, but after a while he found Sasuke sitting in the grass in a dark corner. Naruto stared at him for a while, but eventually sat down right next to him and a long silence followed.

"I took you there" - Sasuke said and sighed. He had never wanted Naruto to know, but now it seemed like something he had to do, there were so many things left unsaid and he didn't want it to be over between them. He needed Naruto.

"Where?" - Naruto seemed confused. He didn't think about the story he had brought up.

"To the hospital" - he said and frowned, looking rather hurt at the ground. Naruto stared at him in disbelief.

"So...you were really there?" - Naruto asked, still looking at Sasuke, while the other turned his head to the blond.

"Didn't want you to get hurt" - Sasuke stated, looking sadly at the man in front of him, while the blond smiled a little.

The clouds seemed to disappear and the moon was shining upon them. Something blue was shining upon Naruto's chest and Sasuke realized that he was still wearing that necklace.

"I still can't believe you don't want us anymore" - Sasuke stated and frowned, his head was still facing Naruto, but he was lowered his glance and took the necklace in his hands to stare at it.

"I can't Sasuke..." - Naruto said and looked away sadly and closed his eyes

"You're still wearing my necklace" - Sasuke stated. Naruto widened his eyes.

"What?"- Naruto turned to face the man in front of him.

"The necklace I gave you at your birthday some years ago" - Sasuke said, still looking at the necklace - "You're still wearing it" - he added. Naruto was speechless and couldn't believe Sasuke. He had never been present at his birthday, nor did he seem to know when it was.

"It was your 25th birthday, I visited you at your appartment and you told me you liked my necklace, so I gave it to you" - Sasuke stated and looked at Naruto, that was still looking confused and in disbelief. Naruto was about to say something but he stopped as Sasuke frowned and looked away.

"No wonder you don't remember it, you were drunk" - Sasuke said and a shallow and hurt smirk appeared on his face.

"It was actually funny, you should've been there watching you. You glomped me and wanted to do it on the street. Hn, you even told me you missed me" - Sasuke let out a small laugh that turned really soon in an emotionless look. Naruto was blushing out of shame, but he frowned pretty soon as he realized that it wasn't just a dream. He remembered now every detail of that night, he had cried in front of Sasuke, pulled him in a kiss and stripped him down, but Sasuke took him in the appartment since it was cold outside. They shared some deep kisses on his bed, but he fell asleep pretty soon, he was drunk after all. Naruto suddenly felt a cold hand caressing softly his cheek and he opened his eyes, only to find Sasuke looking deeply into his eyes. Sasuke knew he had to tell Naruto, it was his chance to get him back, it was his chance to tell the other the truth about the way he felt. A slight blush was appearing on both faces, but they didn't seem to notice.

"Naruto, I..." - Sasuke said as both closed their eyes and were getting closer to each other.

Suigetsu was about to kiss Karin, but he had hit someone with his back. He turned around and saw Kiba holding Hinata, as she was obviously about to fall to the floor. Karin slapped Suigetsu and excused herself for his odd and reckless behaviour. Suigetsu scratched the back of his head and looked annoyed at Karin, but turned his attention to the two standing in front of him.

"Congratulations, by the way!" - Suigetsu said and shook both Kiba's and Hinata's hand. - "I'm Suigetsu, and this is Karin" - he added a while later, while Karin smiled at the couple in front of them.

"Nice to meet you" - Hinata said.

"We're here with Ino, Sasuke's here too. I think you were highschool comrades?" - Karin asked.

"Yeah, we were. Sasuke was in my football team" - Kiba said and smiled.

"By the way, were is Sasuke?" - Suigetsu turned to Karin that shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm gonna kill that motherfucker!" - Naruto and Sasuke turned around only to find an angry Gaara that was searching for Sasuke, followed by a worried Neji that tried to calm his friend down. Naruto stood up and got to Gaara to stop him.

"It's alright Gaara, he's gone" - the blond said, trying to reassure his friend and trying to help Sasuke to get away. Everybody knew that Gaara was short tempered and that he wasn't easy to take on. Naruto and Neji looked shocked as they realized that Sasuke was standing right in front of them, but they hold Gaara back from attacking.

"I'm not going to be a threat anymore" - Sasuke stated calmly and turned to walk away, but stopped after a while. - "Take care of yourself, Naruto" - he added and vanished into the darkness. He got to his hotel room and fell on the bed, thinking about his last encounter with Naruto. It didn't go as good as he had expected and he hadn't found the courage and the right time to confess, or better, he had found the right time but was interupted. He knew that it was the last time he would see Naruto, but he realized that maybe they were not meant to be. He wanted Naruto to be happy, but he was obviously the one hurting him and that was the main reason he had left without saying anything else to Naruto.

After a while he took out his phone and sent a message to Ino, telling her that he felt sick and went back to their hotel.

* * *

You're going ahead while I stopped going  
How can I fill the gap between you and me that cannot be shrunk?  
As I can't still put that into words honestly  
I'm a born coward  
My love for you seems to overflow from my hands  
To whom shall I give it over?  
You know, I can't find someone else to give it to  
I'm gonna wait more  
Is that now?

"Ama No Jaku – A born coward"


	11. Chapter 11: Right here and now (The End)

**Chapter 11: Right here and now**

'A new text message from Sasuke' Ino picked her phone and read the message:

"Didn't feel well, I'm on my way to the hotel, so don't worry"

He didn't feel well? Wait, he had been followed to the balcony by Naruto...oh. Ino smirked causing Sakura to worry.

"Got a text message from Sasuke saying that he's heading to the hotel" - Ino said and looked at Sakura gloatingly.

"You mean, he's with Naruto?" - Sakura asked and her question was immediatly answered by a nod.

"I guess so" - Ino said and shrugged her shoulders while still smirking, but Sakura frowned for some reasons.

"Yeah, uhm, Ino, there's only one problem" - Sakura said pointing her index finger past to Ino's head.

"And that would b..." - Ino asked, but as she turned around she stopped. - "Oh no, you gotta be kidding me!" - she added shortly after as she saw Naruto get back, followed by Neji and Gaara. Naruto was smiling and the three of them got to the dancefloor to dance again, Ino frowned but she turned around as she felt a hand upon her shoulder.

"Maybe they..."

"No they didn't. I'm sorry Sakura, I have to go." - Ino said, but Sakura grabbed her hand and didn't let go of it.

"Don't you think that Sasuke-kun needs to be alone for a while?" - Sakura said as Ino shrugged her shoulders and nodded after letting out a sigh. Both stared at Naruto that didn't seem to be bothered nor hurt, he acted as usual.

'What did I think?' Naruto told himself. He was about to kiss Sasuke, he was the one starting it, though he had ended their affair. 'Doesn't matter anyway, does it?', it didn't, Sasuke would leave him alone and though he couldn't get the way the Uchiha was looking at him out of his head: he was hurt, he was sad. 'Naruto, I...', Sasuke's last words to him rushed through his mind. What did he want to tell him? It was over anyway, so why bother? Gaara looked at him and could feel that there was something wrong.

"I'm sorry Gaara, but I'm going for a walk." - Naruto said in Gaara's ear, since the music was loud.

"I'm com..." - Gaara was cut out.

"No, you don't have to. Just stay here and have fun with Neji" - Naruto smiled at Gaara and left to say goodbye to Kiba and Hinata, before leaving the building.

"Shit, Naruto is leaving too!" - Sakura said. Ino looked at the blond leaving through the crowd.

"So?" - Ino asked. She didn't think it was a big deal, the blond seemed fine.

"I'm his friend, I can surely tell when something's wrong with him" - Sakura stated.

"Well, then, I guess I should go to Sasuke, too" - Ino said and turned around as she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Ino, do you know where Sasuke is?" - Juugo asked. Karin and Suigetsu where there too.

"Yeah, he didn't feel well and headed back to the hotel. I'm going too, you guys can stay a little long if you want" - Ino said as the three nodded and headed back to the dancefloor.

"Well, guess I'll see you around..." - the blond girl added after a while. Sakura nodded and smiled.

"You have where to stay, don't you?" - Ino asked worried, she didn't want Sakura to have to drive home, it was already 2 a.m.

"Yeah, I live here in Sapporo. I actually work in this Palace, I was the one helping Kiba to rent it" - Sakura said and smiled. She took out a piece of paper and a pen out of her bag and wrote something on the paper.

"Here's my number. I had fun tonight, hope we'll meet again soon" - she added after some time.

"Was the first time we actually had fun together, ne, Sakura-chan?" - Ino asked and both laughed.

"You've grown into a beautiful flower, Sakura." - Ino said and placed a kiss on the other's cheek, 'causing Sakura to blush a little and then left. Sakura ran to the back door and left too to find Naruto, as she found him some time later at walking aimlessly around, while Ino was heading to her hotel room, but stopped as she found a person she knew well standing in front of her.

"Ino, I finally found you! You left without a word" - her father said, worried. All Ino did was looking at the ground, it hurt to know that she had disappointed her father. Inoichi put a hand on his daughter's shoulder, causing her to shiver. She thought he was about to hit her, though he never did actually hurt her phisically, no matter what she did wrong.

"Dad, I'm so sor..."

"There's nothing you should be apologizing for, darling. You don't have to be ashamed or worried, I will love you no matter what" - he told her and lifted her head with his thumb. Her eyes were shining, obvious tears were forming as he wiped them from her eyes. - "you're still my little girl" - he added shortly after, smiling warmly. Ino looked at her father and hugged him, whispering - "I love you, daddy" - in his ear. After a few minutes of intense emotions he brought her to her hotel room, and as she came in she found Sasuke sleeping.

"Naruto-kun!" - Sakura screamed and got to Naruto as fast as she could while the latter turned to her to face her.

"Sakura-chan, what are you doing here?" - Naruto looked at her skeptically, raising one of his eyebrows.

"I was looking for you, but you left and so I was worried. What's wrong?" - Sakura asked, she knew better when Naruto was sad.

"Nothing, it's really nothing. I'm just a little tired" - Naruto said and smiled warmly at her, but frowned pretty soon as he turned his head towards the ground and saw Sasuke's necklace. He had felt a strong attachment to that necklace for some reason, even before he found out that it was Sasuke's. He closed his eyes and started to walk again. Sakura followed close behind him, but she didn't know what to do, nor what to say. Ino had hinted that Naruto and Sasuke had something going on, but she was still skeptical whether to believe it or not.

"You know, Sasuke-kun was here tonight" - Sakura said and Naruto stopped from walking. - "Did you get in a fight with him?" - Sakura finally asked, she knew that the two of them used to fight a lot.

"No, I wouldn't say that" - Naruto said and walked again. He didn't really want to talk about Sasuke and he didn't understand why she brought him up, even because she should be over him by now.

"Ino told me something, about you and Sasuke-kun..." - Sakura finally said. She was curious and wanted to know if Naruto felt sad because of the dark haired man. Naruto stopped again and turned around fastly, looking shocked at Sakura, his eyes wide open.

"What?You spoke to Ino?" - He said and laughed nervously. He was shocked at her statement, but mostly because Sakura had spoken to her highschool rival.

"Yeah, I guess we're friends now" - Sakura said and smiled, a light blush appearing on her face. Naruto noticed that she was happy that she wouldn't still hold a grudge at the blond because she had gotten the one she always wanted. Naruto frowned at that though, it was also the one he always wanted.

"Is it true what Ino said?" - Sakura asked as she had seen Naruto frown. Naruto looked up to her and decided to talk about his affair with Sasuke. They sat down and he started to talk about how everything began and about how everything had ended.

"My body was moving on it's own, he was about to tell me something and I was about to kiss him, but then Gaara came and he told me farewell" - Naruto ended his story with this line and stared at the sky.

"I'm really sorry Naruto-kun..." - Sakura said, she didn't know what else to say. - "You know what? Let's have some fun, you can stay at my house tonight" - Sakura stood up and smiled widely at Naruto.

"I would love to, but what about G..."

"Don't you worry about that!" - Sakura said and picked her phone. She was sending a text message and waited a while, before receiving an answer. She read the text message, grabbed Naruto's hand and pulled him with her.

"It's alright, let's have fun!" - She said and laughed as Naruto tried to avoid to stumble.

'I'm taking Naurto to my home, could you look for a place for Gaara?', Neji received the following message.

"Gaara, Naruto is staying at Sakura's, do you mind sleeping at my place tonight?" - Neji asked Gaara. He was friends with Sakura and he knew about what had happened, so he understood what the light haired girl wanted to do.

"Naruto's sleeping at Sakura's place? Well, then I guess there's no problem" - Gaara said and Neji smiled.

'Have fun you two!' he had sent to Sakura before dancing again with Gaara.

"I'm a little tired, I'm going to sit down" - Gaara said before trying to leave the dancefloor.

"We can go home if you want, I'm tired too actually!" - Neji said, as both left to say goodbye to Kiba and Hinata before heading to Neji's appartment. He didn't live too far away from Sapporo, so they got there pretty fast.

They sat on the bed and were talking about the night, laughing at how much fun they had had.

"I think I like him" - Gaara said out of nowhere. Neji stopped to laugh and looked at the redhead seriously.

"Naruto?" - Neji asked, knowing that it was probably who he was talking about.

"Yeah, but he doesn't feel the same for me" - Gaara said and frowned. Naruto was his first strong bond and since his first he started to build strong bonds with everybody else, for now the only bonds he had were Naruto and Neji.

"How do you know?"

"He rejected me a few times, saying that he's not ready and that I'm his friend" - Gaara stated and closed his eyes.

"But you are his friend, and after all, he's had strong feelings for another person, he needs to get over it." - Neji said and placed a hand on Gaara's cheek. - "You are a wonderful person, I'm sure everybody would be able to fall for you" - he added and smiled warmly. Gaara looked at him and hugged him.

"Thanks, I couldn't imagine a better friend than you!" - Gaara said, 'causing the other to blush nervously. They both laughed a bit more and eventually went to bed.

"Oh no, you didn't!" - Sakura said while laughing, before she took a pillow and threw it at Naruto. They were having a pillow fight and had a lot of fun, before they both became tired and were breathing hard. They sat both on the couch and watched tv.

"Kids these days, where's the old 80's music? Who the hell would listen to such crap?" - Naruto stated. They were watching MTV and at late night it turned to a music channel. Sakura started to laugh.

"Oh you old geezer, just because you don't like it doesn't mean that it's crap!" - Sakura said, while Naruto was looking at her annoyed. They talked, sang along some songs they knew when they came up on tv and eventually fell asleep head to head.

Suigetsu, Karin and Juugo were heading to the hotel, but they were awfully quiet and didn't fight.

"Did something happen between you two?" - Juugo finally asked, breaking the tension. He was a little worried, the quiet between Suigetsu and Karin was unbearable. Both turned to each other and shook nervously their heads.

"No, no, of course not! Why would something ever happen between us two?" - Suigetsu said, but as he realized that he had made it quite clear that he was nervously denying it, he frowned.

"Alright" - was Juugo's simple answer, followed by a should shrug and then finally he walked away, leaving Karin and Suigetsu behind. Juugo opened his hotel room and got in, without caring much about the other two.

Karin and Suigetsu stopped in front of their hotel room, looked at the doors and turned to each other.

"Uhm, I..." - both let out and started to laugh. - "Thank you" - Karin said as she placed a kiss upon the other's cheek and got into her room. Suigetsu just stood there as he watched Karin entering her room, and he could see a slight blush on her face. He smiled and entered his own room, he went to sleep and dreamed about the night.

Sasuke woke up the next day and he felt more hollow then usual: he had lost hopes to get Naruto back and he had even given up the blond. He turned his head to his left and saw Ino sleeping peacefully at his side, he got up, got dressed and left. He didn't feel the need to eat and he didn't feel the need to exist, he walked aimlessly up and down through the roads, not really caring about anything and without clear thoughts in his head. He had left everything at the hotel, including his own phone so that he wouldn't have to talk to anyone. It soon became night and he saw a figure with blond hair that just looked like Naruto. He widened his eyes and started to walk towards him, his feet dragging him there opposing to his own will. As he got there he realized that it was a mannequin and to top that it started raining. He felt the sudden urge to drink alcohol to forget everything, he needed to get drunk and got to the first bar he encountered.

They fell asleep, the tv still on and it was almost time for the news. Sakura woke up and changed channel, she loved to listen to the "last" news about fashion. Naruto did also wake up, stood up and got to the bathroom.

"_And now for the fashion news! We were able to get an exclusive interview with the infamous model Yamanaka Ino! Our fashion reporter Akiko Tanaka" - _Sakura was eating a cup of cereals and almost chocked on it.

"_We're here live from Sapporo and we're trying to get an interview from the leader of one of the most successfull companies in the world and the fascinating blond model at his side. Will they finally declare their relationship openly?"- _Sakura widened her eyes.

"_Miss Yamanaka, is it true that you will be modeling for D&C's new perfume?"_

"_Yes, it is true. I will also be in a tv spot for Uchiha corporations and my new calendar will be out soon!" _

"_So you don't deny that you have some sort of relationship to the Uchiha corporation leader?" _

"_No, I don't. We are friends" _

"Naruto, I think you should see this!" - Sakura screamed as she heard the toilet flush.

"_And what do you say about the rumors saying that you and mister Uchiha are in a love affair? Are you two a couple?"_

"_No, we're..."_ - Naruto stood in front of the tv and shut it down instinctively.

"What the hell? I wanted to watch that!" - Sakura stated angrily, but she reconsidered arguing when she saw the sad look on Naruto's face.

"Alright, alright, let's get something to eat." - Sakura added after a while and they got out.

The hours went by and the sun was setting, as both of them were still on the street walking and talking.

"I guess I should head to Gaara. He had said that he wanted to spend some more time with Neji, but I guess we should go home now. We both have to work tomorrow" - Naruto stated.

"What about a last drink? You know, like we used to do, for old time's sake!" - Sakura smiled at Naruto and he nodded.

They got to a bar and Sakura noticed that a person was sitting at the bar, one that she knew well: it was Sasuke and he seemed a little tipsy, still ordering more drinks. She decided not to tell Naruto about Sasuke's presence and they sat down on a table, ordered a drink and laughed at the old times, but Sakura got also an eye on Sasuke, she could see that he didn't look right and she couldn't help but to worry. Though, Naruto was more important and if he knew that Sasuke was there he would freak out.

"Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan! Are you even listening?" - Naruto said and waved a hand in front of Sakura's face. She snapped out of her thoughts and turned to Naruto, smiling at him.

"Yeah, sorry" - She said and wanted to find an excuse for her being absent, and the right opportunity was just around the corner: the bar's tv was on and there was the same interview she wanted to listen to the same morning.

"Look! Now you can't shut down the tv for once!" - Sakura said happily, wanting to know about Ino's and Sasuke's interview. Naruto frowned and closed his eyes, pretending to not hear the inteview.

"_Are you two a couple?"_

"_No we're not. I'm a lesbian"_

"_Why were you living together?"_

"_We were supporting each other. He was helping me..."_

"_And she was helping me" - _Sakura quivered at Sasuke's statement. She hadn't expected him to take part in the interview.

"_Why?"_

"_I hade some money issu..." - _Sakura started to laugh as she saw Ino hitting Sasuke's ribs with her elbow.

"_I mean, she was helping me realizing something..." _

"_Realizing what?"_

"_That there is an Usuratonkachi out there that I don't hate" - _Naruto widened his eyes. What?

"_Are you two currently in any sort of romantic relationship with someone?"_

"_No, we're not and we're not going to answer any more of your questions"_

Naruto was quivering, staring wide eyed at the television, while Sakura placed a hand on his shoulder. He put his hands on his head and let it fall upon the table, while Sakura was looking worried at him. All sort of feelings were coming up, he didn't know what to do, nor what to think, but Sakura lifted his head.

"Naruto-kun?" - She asked sweetly and caring.

"He..."

"Yes, yes he did" - Sakura said, trying to comfort the other.

"It's too late..." - Naruto said and before Sakura could say anything he added - "I, I...I have to find him!" - Naruto said as he noticed someone break a glass and leaving furiously the bar. He turned around and saw a familiar shape running away from there and Sakura was pointing at that person.

"This is your chance, Naruto-kun" - she said and smiled warmly.

Sasuke had heard his own interview and pushed away his empty glass, causing it to break. He left the money on the bar and rushed out of there, he felt pathetic when he heard his own words. It was still raining and he was getting soaking wet, but he kept going on aimlessly. He was nervous and a little angry at himself for no apparent reason, the fact that he had lost what made him happy got to him and he couldn't bear it. He wanted to punch and kick himself, he wanted to die. He could hear loud foot steps following him, but he didn't care at all. The person was talking, but he didn't seem to understand any of it and just kept walking away.

"Sasuke! Wait!" - Naruto was running, but the other didn't seem to stop nor to answer.

"Please wait for me!" - He added as he was rushing, trying to reach the other, but he was far away. It was raining, but he didn't care if it was reckless and dangerous, he started to run faster and was almost reaching Sasuke. He took the other's wrist, but the other pushed him away 'causing him to fall. Naruto was sitting on the wet floor, looking at Sasuke walking away from him.

"I just wanted to tell you" - Naruto said as he stood up - "I'm glad you found someone you don't hate" - he added and walked back to the bar.

Sasuke stopped immediatly, he had recognized the blond's voice and he turned to him, seeing him walking away.

"The Usuratonkachi I don't hate" - Sasuke said, looking at Naruto in a sad way. Naruto stopped and turned around, sharing an intense and deep stare with the other man. Naruto got closer to him and they were standing face to face, the rain pouring down upon them.

"I have never hated you" - Sasuke said after a long pause. He didn't know how to put it in words, all he knew was that he had to tell him, whatever might happen. Naruto was looking sad, but his frown soon turned into a small smile, while Sasuke was looking down.

"I've never thought of you as an idiot, it is my fault we ended up like this, I just couldn't stand knowing that you hated me and it gave me more incentive to reach for you" - he added, still looking at the ground. - "fighting you was the only way for me to be by your side" - he continued and clenched his fists.

"Sasuke..." - Naruto said silently and sweetly. He was looking at Sasuke that was really looking hurt.

"I ignored your feelings, I ignored every thought I saw in your eyes, I ignored my feelings as well" - Sasuke said calmly in a hurt tone - "the only thing I didn't...couldn't ignore was that I needed you" - he was staring at the floor, but it started to blur as his eyes started to become wetter. - "And I still do..." - he added silently and run a hand through his hair. Naruto was staring at him, without saying anything and Sasuke raised his head to face the blond in front of him and frowned.

"I-I'm sorry, it's just pathetic. I won't...I know it's over now..." - Sasuke said embarrased and let out a small laugh, as he turned around and wanted to walk away, but Naruto grabbed his wrist and turned him around to face him. He placed his hand on the back of the other's head as he pulled him closer to kiss him.

He pressed his lips against the other's, running his fingers through the dark hair and caressing the other's head softly. Sasuke deepened the kiss, caressing the other's tongue with his own and putting one arm on the upper half of Naruto's back and the other on his hips. He pulled Naruto closer embracing him, their lips were connected, they were kissing each other passionately, their tongues playing eagerly but in a sweet way as they shared a long kiss. They pulled away to breathe, but couldn't get enough of each other and kissed over and over again. After a while Naruto parted and leaned with his forehead on the other's. The blue eyes were locked to the gleaming black ones as they shared an intense stare, Sasuke was smiling and Naruto couldn't help but to smile too, warm feelings coming up and written all over his face. Naruto wanted to kiss the other's lips again as he was longing for more, he got closer to Sasuke's lips, but the weather's consequences started to show as he sneezed on the other's face. Sasuke rubbed his face with his right hand and he frowned, looking annoyed at the blond in front of him, as the latter rubbed the back of his head and smiled ashamed.

"I take back what I said before, you will always be an Usuratonkachi!" - Sasuke stated and looked annoyed at Naruto, as the latter started to laugh loudly, but he couldn't help to laugh too.

"You said it, okay?" - Naruto stated after some minutes and smiled warmly at Sasuke, while the latter looked at him skeptically, but eventually smiled back.

"I guess so" - he said and kissed the blond goodbye. - "See ya around?" - he added after pulling away from the kiss.

"Yeah...I should head back to the bar now, Sakura's waiting for me!" - Naruto said and punched the other's arm softly - "see ya, Teme!" - he added shortly, smiling and going back to Sakura.

After a few minutes he got there, only to find Sakura standing in front of the door with her arms crossed and with a teasing smirk on her face.

"So, how's our lover-boy doing?" - she said as Naruto stopped in front of her - "How did it go?" - Naruto didn't expect her to see everything and of course he hadn't thought at all about what to say to her once he got back.

"Nothing special, really..." - he said looking at the floor, but Sakura pinched him and he lifted his head. He was about to complain about the pain, but he was shut down by Sakura.

"That blush on your face says something different!" - Sakura stated firmly as Naruto put a hand on his cheek and laughed nervously. She grabbed his arm and pulled him away, as they walked back to her appartment, talking and laughing on their way.

_-A few months later-_

"Alright, listen. It's not my fault that that idiot didn't completely fill up the car!" … "I was able to get to Iruka's flat"... "Don't call me that, teme! I told you it's not my-"... "Just because I didn't check doesn't mean-"... "Watch it! Just pick me up already!" - Iruka was trying to hold his laughter as he was listening to Naruto's phone conversation, but he frowned as Naruto stood in front of him glaring at him annoyed.

"That's not funny!" - Naruto stated annoyed, as Iruka sensei bursted out laughing. Naruto rolled his eyes and sat down next to his sensei.

"I'm sorry, you'll be late for work because of me...I'm sure Ebisu-san is already waiting for you" - Naruto apologized. He didn't mean to bother Iruka, it just happened that he didn't notice that the tank was empty.

"Don't worry about that!" - Iruka said and smiled at Naruto, as the latter smiled back. - "By the way, what happened to your story? Did it have a happy ending?" - Iruka asked curiously and Naruto looked at him a skeptically.

"What story?" - Naruto asked.

"Uhm, the one you were talking about. You told me you would let me see it once you finished it and I was wondering if you did" - Iruka asked perplexed. He knew that the whole "story" thing was just a way to talk indirectly about his problems in his love life, but since he had read some of Naruto's ideas he thought that he had started writing it.

"I never wrote any story and even if i did, I would never let you read it!" - Naruto said and crossed his arms. Iruka frowned and look at him kinda shocked.

"What? You said...you would..." - Iruka stated a little confused. He looked at the floor, but something had suddenly hit his head so he turned to face Naruto, as he found his face in front of a notebook.

"Haha, gotcha!" - Naruto said and started to laugh, as Iruka gave him an unpleased look, but eventually laughed too.

"I wrote the first part exactly like I told you I would, but I think you should read from...here on" - Naruto said as he scrolled to one of the last pages and pointed on a paragraph in the middle of it. - "Mind if I use the bathroom?" - Naruto asked as he stood up and left as he saw Iruka shaking his head and pointing at a room at the end of the floor.

He started reading in the notebook and he noticed that there were only some ideas written on it, there were even a few grammatical incorrect sentences and he looked annoyed at them, picking up a pen and pointing the mistakes up, writing the correct words upon the wrong ones. He started to laugh as he was reminded of how many times he had to correct Naruto's tests over and over again when he was still his student and he frowned at his bad habit to still do it when he had a chance to. The ideas were messy, but he quickly got to the point and Iruka was happy to see how much Naruto had improved, not only with the writing skills but also with his life:

"_Since she had confessed his feelings, he couldn't get her out of his head, making her his only dream, his only passion, his only desire. He needed her more than ever and he had to tell her, he had to find a way to get her back._

_And there he was, stalking her, seeing her with another guy that seemed to annoy her with his flirt attempts and he couldn't stop his body as it moved towards that man and punched him right in the face. She was looking at him angrily while he looked at her hurt, as he turned around and walked away._

_She was crying on the road, it was raining and she was getting soaking wet, but the rain suddenly stopped pouring down upon her. She looked up and found Sam putting an umbrella over her head and looking at her in a sadly sweet way. She turned her head away and he sat down next to her, caressing her shoulders and pulling her closer to him as she was shivering from the cold. She started to cry and she didn't understand the other's attitude, but it suddenly changed as she heard him say "I need you". Her teary eyes met his raven black ones, as he ran softly his hand along her cheek and kissed her sweetly on the lips. The rain was pouring down on them, but they didn't care because they finally had each other again."_

Iruka smiled as he read the ending, but he put the notebook away as soon as he had heard Naruto get back from the bathroom.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, I'm coming!" - Naruto was talking on the phone and he rolled his eyes as he hung up, but smiled shortly after. - "Iruka-sensei, I have to go. Sorry I had to bother you for so long!" - Naruto said and smiled a little ashamed. He took his jacket and was heading out, rushing on the stairs, but eventually he stopped.

"You forgot you notebook!" - Iruka said and threw Naruto the notebook. - "By the way, someday I want to hear the real story from you" - Naruto raised an eyebrow as Iruka sensei said those words and smiled teasingly. He had understood what his sensei meant and couldn't help but to smile and blush ashamed, as he nodded and rushed down the stairs.

Iruka got back in and stared out of the window, as he saw his old student Sasuke leaning on a car with his arms crossed. Naruto was running towards the other and the other punched the blond's arm.

"What was that for?" - Naruto screamed as he scratched his arm that had been hit by the dark haired.

"For being my Usuratonkachi" - Sasuke merely answered, as he pulled the other in a kiss. Naruto pulled away almost suddenly.

"What the hell? Not in front of everybody, teme! What if someone sees us?" - He let out and crossed his arms, as it was obvious that he was blushing.

"Hell do I care?" - Sasuke said and turned away. They were fighting over trivial things as they started to get further away and Iruka couldn't hear what they were saying, he could only see a few punches once in a while, but he smiled as he had seen Naruto smile happily and embrace the other.

The story really had a happy ending, didn't it?

* * *

Look around  
There's no one but you and me  
Right here and now  
The way it was meant to be  
There's a smile on my face  
Knowing that together everything that's in our way  
We're better than alright

"Lifehouse feat. Natasha Bedingfield – Between the Raindrops"

* * *

Hey guys, this is my Valentine's gift for you, I uploaded the last chapter a day before and I want to thank you for all your kind reviews, I'm really glad you enjoyed my story.

By the way, I did an extra chapter with all other couples (for those who wondered what happened to the others) that also contains SasuNaru, I'll upload it tomorrow as planned for this one. Hope you won't be disappointed :)


	12. EXTRA Chapter 12: I've found the One

**Extra Chapter 12: I have found the one I want to protect**

The doorbell rang and Naruto woke up annoyed: it was early in the morning and he didn't get much sleep. He wrapped the first thing he found on the floor around his naked waist and opened the door, scratching his eyes.

"Now, if it isn't our sleepy head!" - Kiba said and Hinata let out a small innocent laugh. Naruto looked at him not impressed at all, as his friend started to laugh.

"Didn't know you started to sleep naked..." - Kiba said teasingly, causing both Hinata and Naruto to blush heavily as the girl turned around to Kiba and hugged him in order to be able to forget the scene she had in front of her eyes. Naruto's eyes were wide open as he looked down on a shirt that was clearly not his and that was wrapped around his waist, but he looked up and smiled ashamed at Kiba.

"Yeah, it's a little hot in here, you know" - Naruto said, trying to make up a lame excuse. - "So, what brings you two here?" - he added shortly after to break his tension.

"We talked about it for a long time and decided to ask you something" - Kiba said, turning his head to Hinata and smiling widely at her, as she returned a warm and soft smile.

"Oh, uhm, yeah" - Naruto turned his head and looked back into his appartment - "Let's go to a bar where we can talk about everything in peace. Just wait here, I'll be there in a minute!" - Naruto said as he got inside and headed to the bathroom.

"C'mon Hinata, let's go inside" - Kiba said and smiled at her as he was heading towards the door.

"But Kiba-kun! Naruto-kun said we should wait outside for him!" - Hinata said, a little insecure.

"Don't you worry, I know Naruto, he won't get mad at us. By the way, why should he? He's got nothing to hide from us, apart from the mess in his house..." - Kiba said as he entered, but he stopped in track, his words and jaw dropping. - "...and maybe the reason why he thinks it's so hot in here..." - he added after regaining his senses and put fastly a hand on Hinata's eyes as she was following him inside.

"So, let's go to the bar, shall we?" - Naruto said as he rushed to the door, but he frowned as he didn't find anyone outside.

"We let ourselves in..." - Kiba said frowning, as Naruto turned his head to see Hinata and Kiba sit on the sofa, while he saw Sasuke leaving his bedroom to join him and his friends, still putting his shirt on.

"You know, I think the number of questions I have to ask you has increased to two" - Kiba said as he pointed to Sasuke, causing Naruto to blush and face palm himself.

"Uhm, yeah, this is Sasuke" - Naruto said, looking shocked at the floor to hide his wide blush.

"I know who this is, but what is he doing here and why was he naked?" - Kiba asked monotonous, obviously annoyed by Naruto's stupid answer and a little hurt. Naruto looked shocked and angry at Sasuke, while the latter just shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't look at me like that, it's not like I knew your friends were coming" - Sasuke merely answered. Naruto frowned and looked ashamed at the floor again.

"Listen, I don't care who you...fuck...but, why didn't you tell me? I though we were friends" - Kiba said, he didn't really like to know that his best friend was into men, but he was obviously hurt by the fact that his best friend didn't share his secret while the blond knew everything about him. Hinata caressed Kiba's hand gently to comfort her lover, as the latter turned his head to her and smiled warmly.

"It's really not what you think, it's not that I didn't want to tell you, but it happened so fast and...I didn't know how you would react..." - Naruto said, he didn't want to hurt Kiba, but he also didn't want to lose him as a friend and that's why he never told him. Kiba looked at him skeptically, he stood up and walked towards Naruto as the blond was still looking at the floor ashamed. Kiba lifted his head and looked him deadly in the eyes, before punching his shoulder.

"I'm just messing with you!" - Kiba said and smiled widely, as he hugged his best friend. - "So, about the thing we wanted to talk to you about..." - he added shortly after, as they both headed back to the couch.

"Uhm, you want some coffee?" - Sasuke asked, as the three of them nodded. He headed to the kitchen, he knew it was something personal, so he wanted to give them space to talk.

"You're my best friend, you know that, and you're also dear to Hinata..." - Kiba started as his girlfriend was looking at him warmly. - "since we're getting married we wanted to have important people to uphold our love around us at the wedding..." - he said and smiled at Hinata, who was now blushing.

"Please, Naruto-kun, be our best man" - Hinata pleaded happily, as Naruto widened his eyes.

"Me?" - Naruto asked skeptically.

"No, your father...of course you, silly!" - Kiba said as he hit Naruto head with his fist. Hinata punched Kiba in the ribs, causing the latter to hold his body with both hands.

"Stop being so rude!" - She said, looking angrily at Kiba and then back to Naruto, excusing herself for Kiba's behaviour. Both knew about Naruto's past and even Kiba realized that he had exagerated a little with the jokes.

"Well, what do you say?" - Kiba said, returning to the previous theme.

"What can I say? I'd love to!" - Naruto said and smiled, as he turned his head to face Sasuke who was coming back with the coffees.

"Yeah, by the way, you're invited too to the wedding" - Kiba said as he took a cup. - "We couldn't find your address, we didn't know you weren't living with Ino anymore, and the only thing she told us was that we would be able to find you somewhere we never could imagine. I guess she was right..." - Kiba said as he looked at Naruto and then back to Sasuke, raising his eyebrow. Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other innocently, and then smirked at Kiba.

They spent some time together, but Kiba and Hinata had to leave to hand over the invites to other people, so Naruto and Sasuke accompanied them to the trainstation. Hinata got closer to Naruto's ear - "Are you two, you know...a couple?" - She asked enthusiastically. Naruto stopped and looked at her skeptically.

"I wouldn't say that, no" - He said and smiled, causing the girl to frown.

Sasuke had overheard the conversation and frowned, feeling a little guilty. Why was it?

Kiba and Hinata rang the doorbell, they were standing in front of a huge villa and they both couldn't wait until they got in. A shadow appeared in front of a window and it seemed to scream, as it disappeared as soon as it had appeared. Ino rushed outside and hugged Hinata, after all she was her best friend and she didn't really expect to see her, though she was happy to be able to hug her.

"What are you two doing here? Shouldn't you be preparing the wedding?" - Ino asked, literally screaming out of joy.

"That's exactly why we're here. We wanted to give you your invite personally, since you're dear to us" - Hinata said happily as both girls shared another hug. Kiba felt a little neglected.

"So, I guess you want to spend some time alone, don't you?" - Kiba said and both girls nodded at the same time, with the same smile on their faces. - "Then I think I can go to our next invitees. Do you know where I can find Sasuke's friends? They were at our party and seemed like nice people." - he added a while after. Ino laughed at Kiba's statement, but she eventually wrote their addresses down on a paper.

"They don't live that far from here, you can even walk there, they live in the same street" - Ino said as she pointed to an alley. - "Just follow the road" - she added.

Kiba thanked her and started to head away, as the two girls got inside of the villa.

"Darling, it's so nice to see you! You don't know how happy I am for you!" - Ino said as she smiled widely at her best friend.

"Thank you so much, it means a lot. By the way, I want you to be the maid of honor" - Hinata said smiling. Ino smiled happily and nodded, but frowned as she heard a specific name. - "Sakura will be my bridesmaid, aren't you happy? You like her don't you?" - Hinata had said and smiled happily at Ino, but she eventually saddened as she saw the hollow look on her best friend's face.

"What's wrong Ino?" - She said a while after.

"I fucked everything up" - Ino said, as she looked hurt to the floor.

"What happened? I thought you were getting well along with her..." - Hinata said, worried.

"Yeah, but I didn't think my feelings would come up" - Ino said and Hinata placed a hand on her back. - " I don't even know what has gotten in me, I didn't even realize what I was doing, my body was moving on its own, but as soon as I realized that I had kissed her it was too late." - Ino said, while Hinata was caressing her back to comfort her.

" I've longed for so many years to gain her trust and to become her friend, though I never thought that I would fall for her...she ran away from me!" - Ino said desperately.

"I'm sure she was just shocked, don't worry, it'll be alright eventually!" - Hinata tried to cheer her up. Ino lifted her head and smiled softly at Hinata, as the latter returned the warm smile.

"Well, hello. You're Kiba, right?" - Suigetsu said as he opened the door. Kiba nodded and Suigetsu let him in. They both got in and Juugo stood up to greet their guest.

"We met at your party" - Juugo said as he stretched his arm to shake the other's hand.

"Yeah, uhm..." - Kiba stuttered, he didn't remember the other's name.

"Juugo, and this is Suigetsu." - Juugo said, smiling at him.

"Right. I'm sorry" - Kiba said a little ashamed that he had forgotten their names.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you didn't mean to. By the way, it was a busy night and I'm sure you've met a lot of people you didn't know, of course you wouldn't remember all names." - Juugo said calmly, he could understand the other's conditions.

"Would you like to drink something?" - Suigetsu asked, but Kiba shook his head, since he had already drunk coffee at Naruto's place.

"I'm just here to give you my invitation to my wedding." - Kiba stated as he handed Juugo the invitation. - "By the way, where's your girlfriend?" - Kiba said as he turned his head to Suigetsu, but all the latter did was looking shocked first at Kiba and then at Juugo, both of them looking skeptically.

"We-we're not a couple!" - Suigetsu screamed, waving his hands in front of him and shaking his head violently. Kiba looked at Juugo with a puzzled look, as the latter just shrugged his shoulders.

"If you're looking for Karin, you'll find her at the building in front of ours. Suigetsu will be happy to show you where she lives" - Juugo said teasingly, while Suigetsu was slowly calming down and looking angry at his flatmate. Suigetsu and Kiba got out of the flat and were walking on the road.

"Listen, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to embarass you, I thought you two were a couple since I've seen you dancing with each other so happily." - Kiba said, causing Suigetsu to frown. Kiba put his hand on the other's back to comfort him. - "You two would make a sweet couple, though" - he added shortly after, as a little blush was appearing on Suigetsu's face.

They got to Karin's house and she was surprised to see them, especially Suigetsu since they hadn't talked for months after what was about to happen between them. She was happy to be invited to the wedding and she proposed to go out to drink something, an offer Kiba couldn't refuse since she was very insistent. He sent a message to Hinata, and the latter decided to pay a visit to Sakura.

"Hinata-chan! What are you doing here?" - Sakura said happily.

"I wanted to give you your invite to the wedding personally." - Hinata said, as she reached out for Sakura's invite in her bag and handed it over to her friend.

"That's so sweet of you, thank you very much! By the way, where's Kiba-kun?" - Sakura asked.

"He's handing invites to Sasuke's friends and they invited him to drink something with them." - Hinata said. - "By the way, I would love you to be my bridesmaid, what do you say?"

"Of course! Who's the maid of honor?" - Sakura asked enthusiastically.

"Ino-chan" - Hinata smiled at her, but Sakura frowned. Hinata wanted to help her best friend, so she tried to talk to Sakura about Ino, since Sakura was also her friend.

"What's wrong? Did you two get into a fight or something?" - Hinata said, though she already knew what had happened.

"No, not really, I just don't talk to her anymore" - Sakura said, looking at the side.

"Why?"

"I...She...kissed me." - Sakura said ashamed.

"Why are you looking so sad? There's nothing to be ashamed of" - Hinata said warmly, trying to cheer her up and she noticed a blush on the other's face as she lifted Sakura's head.

"If you like her, tell her" - Hinata said calmly. She was happy to see that her two friends seemed to have the same feelings for each other.

"I don't! I was just surprised, that's all..." - Sakura stated, trying more to convince herself than her friend. - "Would you like something to drink?" - Sakura asked, trying to change the theme, she didn't want to talk about it. Hinata nodded and as Sakura left the room she frowned. Was she really that bad at helping?

_-At the wedding-_

The day had finally come, the day that would change Kiba's and Hinata's life forever and that would make them finally a real family. Everyone was waiting anxiously for Hinata to come, especially Kiba, since he hadn't seen her for a whole day. Finally they heard a car arriving and the groomsman Shino, the best man Naruto, the bridesmaid Sakura and the Maid of honor Ino rushed to the Church door to await the bride. Kiba was also in position, waiting for his bride in front of the stairs that lead to the altar, he turned his head when everybody else did and he was shocked as he saw how beautiful Hinata looked in the wedding dress. Hiashi was leading his daughter to Kiba, as the four attendants followed them close behind and sat in the front seats. Kiba had insisted to have Sasuke sit in the front seats since he was Naruto's somewhat boyfriend, so Naruto was sitting next to him, but as soon as the priest started to say the Mass for the wedding, he fell asleep. Nobody seemed to notice, but Sasuke did since at some point he could feel a head resting upon his shoulder, but it didn't bother him, he enjoyed to be near Naruto, though when everybody else stood up to pray, he had to do so too and caused the other to fall on the bench. He woke up immediatly and stood up, giving Sasuke a side glance as the latter let out a small laugh. Both Ino and Sakura, who were sitting one at Sasuke's side and the latter at Naruto's side, nudged them in the ribs, getting the same reaction out of the boys as they put a finger on their lips in order to make them shut up. Both girls smiled gloatingly, but frowned and looked away as soon as they realized that they were looking at each other. Naruto fell asleep again, he couldn't help it since the priest was being boring, but he woke up again as Sasuke had shrugged the shoulder he was resting upon and he realized that it was his and Sakura's turn to bring the rings. They got to the altar, Kiba and Hinata said their vows and the priest gave them his blessing.

"You can kiss the bride" - the Priest said, as they shared a kiss and the guests started an applause.

After taking some photos with the guests, everyone started to go to the restaurant to eat, and Naruto and Sasuke where heading out of the church hand in hand. Gaara had seen them and he frowned, he was happy for Naruto, but he couldn't help but feeling hurt that his feelings weren't returned. Neji put a hand on his back and comforted him, saying that he shouldn't think about it and just have some fun and enjoy the day.

It was an awesome party, everyone seemed to have fun, everyone but Karin. She was left alone: Sasuke was sitting at the same table as Naruto and they were talking, they seemed to be happy and at some point they even danced; Juugo was dancing with some girl she didn't know; and Suigetsu...he was nowhere to be found. She was really pissed at him, she couldn't believe that they didn't talk anymore, only because they had danced. She was staring at the dancefloor, but she turned around as she suddenly heard a voice.

"Hey, wanna dance?" - the voice belonged to no other than Suigetsu. She was surprised at first, but eventually looked at him angry.

"Why should I want to dance with you?!" - Karin asked annoyed, why would he ask something like that when they hadn't spoken for months now?

"Because you're staring at the dancefloor since an hour, I guess" - Suigetsu stated. Where the hell did he know that she was staring at the dancefloor? Was he staring at her this whole time?

"You were staring at me? You pervert!" - Karin said as she slapped Suigetsu in the face, same old same old. She crossed her arms and closed her eyes, as Suigetsu smirked and got to his knees in front of her.

"Pretty please, would you like to dance with me?" - Suigetsu asked again, he was teasing her with his attitude, but he couldn't help the slight blush appearing on his face to show that there was a hint of seriousness. Karin opened one of her eyes and was a little shocked as she found his kneeling in front of her, also she noticed that he was insistent and that he would do whatever it takes to get her to dance with him.

"Alright, but just because I've got nothing better to do." - Karin said, as she was pulled out of her seat by Suigetsu, who was leading her to the dancefloor satisfied. They danced for half an hour, before the music turned slow and they practically hugged each other, still dancing. He put his hands on her waist, while she put her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Why did you neglect me for all these months?" - Karin whispered hurt in his ear.

"I had to figure out something and admit it to myself" - he answered.

"What did you need to figure out?"

"That I don't hate you" - he whispered in her ear, causing her to blush.

"And what did you admit to yourself?" - she asked curious, her voice turning sensual.

"That I don't like you" - he said, Karin could feel that he was smiling and she frowned. They weren't really the words she wanted to hear, actually she wanted to hear the complete opposite, since she started to like Suigetsu since the night where he was there for her and made her smile.

"Then why are you dancing with me?" - Karin said hurt, she didn't understand the other's action. She lifted her head from his shoulder and was staring at the other couples dancing. Suigetsu turned his head and brought it as near as possible to Karin's ear, as if he was afraid that she wouldn't be able to hear him.

"Because I love you" - He said, smiling and blushing. Karin widened her eyes, she couldn't believe what she had just heard. She stared a few minutes into the nothing in front of her and as she gained her senses, she turned her head to face Suigetsu, as the latter put his hands on her cheeks and kissed her. She blushed and deepened the kiss, they were still dancing and after a while he pulled back from the kiss, her mouth was still opened and she slowly opened her eyes.

He smiled at her and she rested her head again on his shoulder, as they danced like this for what seemed hours.

It was her wedding, but she couldn't just stay there and celebrate while two of her friends were sad: she could see that Ino and Sakura were staring at each other, so all she needed was a plan. She went to Naruto and whispered something in his ear, as the latter nodded and passed her words on to Sasuke, who just looked at him suspicious.

"You're serious?" - Sasuke asked, as Naruto nodded. He sighed and went to Suigetsu and Juugo, asking them a favor.

Naruto went to Sakura, grabbed her hand and pulled her out to the dancefloor, as she was trying to get out of his grasp.

"What the hell Naruto!" - She screamed.

"C'mon, Sakura-chan, let's dance!" - He said enthusiastically, he couldn't wait to see if Hinata's plan would succeed. The same did Sasuke: after getting his two friends to agree, he went to Ino and forced her to the dancefloor.

Pop music was playing, and Sasuke, Naruto and the others were dancing all together, even Ino and Sakura eventually gave in and danced like fools, having fun with their friends. After some minutes, the music turned to a slow song, and couples started to build up, leaving Sakura and Ino with no one to dance with. They both frowned as they looked at each other and both decided to go away and take their seats, but Naruto and Sasuke pushed them together, almost making them fall to the ground.

"Oops, I'm so sorry!" - Naruto looked past to Sasuke and was smiling innocently, it was obvious that he had done it on purpose. Both Ino and Sakura looked at him annoyed, but they widened their eyes as they saw Sasuke smirk gloatingly.

"What? You too?" - Ino and Sakura shouted at the same time. They couldn't believe that Sasuke would do something that childish. All Sasuke could think was "payback", as he shrugged his shoulders. - "We didn't see you" - he added as he continued to dance with Naruto. Sakura and Ino looked at each other and both pulled away from each other, but as they were about to leave they got surrounded by their friends' backs, who were now dancing around them. They couldn't believe what was going on, both blushed ashamed as they were pushed back together by the dancing crowd. They gave in eventually after a while when they realized that there was nothing they could do, and started to dance with each other.

They both enjoyed dancing with each other, so much that they didn't realize that they weren't surrounded anymore and that they could stop anytime, but they didn't push each other away, on the contrary they got closer and closer. At one point, Ino frowned: she wanted her friend back.

"Sakura, I'm sorry. I don't know what had gotten into me that day. I just want you back...do you think we can still be friends?" - Ino said slowly, with sadness in her voice. She dared looking Sakura in the eyes, as the latter shook her head.

"There's no need to" - Sakura said, and before Ino could realize what was happening, she felt some soft lips pressed against her own. She stared at Sakura for a while, her eyes wide opened, but she closed them and deepened the kiss, embracing her as Sakura caressed gently her cheeks.

Hinata, Naruto and Sasuke were looking at the scene and the three of them smiled, Hinata winked at Naruto to thank him and he just nodded, after all it was a pleasure making Sakura happy.

While dancing with Sasuke, Naruto was looking at all the happy couples around them and he felt a little sad that he couldn't say the same about himself and Sasuke: they spent a lot of time together, they went out on dates, but what were they? They weren't a couple, he couldn't call Sasuke his boyfriend, but they were lovers. It was a stupid thing to be sad about it, but he couldn't help it. He left Sasuke on the dancefloor, saying that he had to go to the bathroom, and the latter just nodded while Naruto headed to the bathroom. He washed his hands and face and headed out to walk, to figure out everything and to eventually forget his thoughts. He knew he shouldn't pretend too much, after all he had everything he wanted: he had friends and Sasuke had finally aknowledged him. What could he ask more? He looked at the stars, it was a beautiful night and he smiled at the little lights that were shining upon him, he was walking forward, eventually turning around a few times like a little child would, and after a while he lowered his look and found a familiar shape standing not too far away who was offering him his hand. He smiled as he realized that it was Sasuke and he took his hand, who helped him to get on the big step Sasuke was standing upon. They were standing in front of a little pond with a small waterfall that was refreshing them and the moonlight was shining on the water surface, making it glimmer and shine. Sasuke let Naruto stand in front of him to let him look at the frogs who were jumping around, he knew that Naruto loved them. He hugged him from behind, resting his head upon the other's back as he heard Naruto's heartbeats and closed his eyes, breathing to their beats.

"Why don't you get yourself one of those?" - Sasuke asked after a while, getting closer to Naruto's ear.

"What?" - Naruto asked.

"I mean, why don't we get us a frog if you like them so much?" - Sasuke rephrased his question.

"Frogs are ment to live free, not in a terrarium...wait, why the sudden question?" - Naruto asked perplexed, he didn't understand why he would ask something like that and mostly...why did he use "we"?

"Wouldn't it be nice if we got us a pet? I mean, I know you love frogs" - Sasuke said. Naruto lifted his head and looked up at the stars, as if they would tell him what was going on.

"What the hell are you..."

"I want you to live with me, I want to share a house with you and call it "our" house..." - Sasuke said, putting his chin upon Naruto's shoulder and staring with him at the starry sky. Naruto widened his eyes and turned his head to Sasuke, looking at him skeptically.

"Why...what..."

"I want to call you mine, Naruto" - Sasuke added, cutting the other's stuttering out.

"Does this mean we...are...?" - Naruto said, he still couldn't believe the other's words.

"Yes, I want us to be together. Do you want it too?" - Sasuke stated, as his question was answered by a kiss, that he deepened immediatly, pulling him closer and embracing him.

Naruto and Sasuke were kissing each other, they seemed to be so in love...Gaara was looking at them and smiled warmly. He was happy to see that Naruto didn't have to suffer anymore, that Naruto had finally found what he had longed and desired for so long, but he saddened as he realized that he was alone. He felt so hollow and pathetic, and he continued to stare at them, even as he felt a hand upon his shoulder.

"Here you are! I was worried, what's wrong?" - Neji asked, as he realized that his friend was staring at Naruto and Sasuke who were kissing each other passionately. He didn't get an answer, but he sat down next to Gaara and looked at the two lovers far away from them.

"It's over, I missed my chance to make him fall for me" - Gaara said after a while, still looking at Naruto who was now fooling around with Sasuke, jumping on him and laughing.

"Gaara, you can't chose who you fall in love with" - Neji said, putting a hand on his friend's back. - "I'm sure he would've have chosen you if he could decide" - he said after a while, smiling warmly at him.

"Who am I kidding anyway? I feel so pathetic" - Gaara said, holding his head with his hands.

"What? You're not pathetic"

"How could I be so stupid to think that he might fall for someone like me" - Gaara added, cutting Neji out. Neji looked at him with a serious look that almost looked like he was angry.

"Would you stop it to let yourself so down? You're not pathetic!" - Neji stated. He didn't want to hear his friend bashing himself.

"How would you call a person who falls in love with his best friend and hopes that he might return the feelings?"

"A caring and loving person, a smart guy. That's what you are and that's what everyone would call you!"

"Yeah, tell that to yourself" - Gaara said and tried to stand up, but his wrist was grabbed and the force of the hand pulled him back to sit.

"Would you stop running away from me?" - Neji asked a little annoyed by Gaara's attitude. He was running away from everyone and he wasn't letting anyone get close to him.

"Who's running..."

"You are! Where's your self esteem? Where's the strong Gaara I know?" - Neji asked. He couldn't believe that this situation got to him so much.

"Don't think there has ever been such a Gaara, I've always been pathetic and desperate to think I would be somehow attractive."

"But you are attractive! I bet a lot of people would die just to get you to look at them!" - Neji said, trying to get him to realize that he is special and to cheer him up.

"I'm sure they would die just looking at me" - Gaara said sarcastic, while turning his head to the ground to look at it.

"Stop it. Don't you remember how that girl eyed you at the disco some weeks ago? You were looking so hot while you were trying your "sexy look". She liked it too!" - Neji said, smiling at Gaara, who was still looking at the floor, but he let out a small laugh and seemed to be happier than before.

"You are an attractive young man, I mean, just look at your muscles! You have a great chest and a sexy six pack!" - Neji said, as Gaara lifted his head to look at his own body. - "But the sexiest thing about you is how smart you are! I mean, the way you're able to solve every problem in your own special way is the best thing about you, and you always help whoever needs help and you're the bestest friend a person could ask for" - Neji continued with the flattering - "Hell, Gaara you're so hot!" - Neji said and let out a small laugh, hitting the other's shoulder lightly. Gaara turned his head to face Neji, as he looked at the latter skeptically, who was smiling. - "Just look at those cute puppy eyes of yours, you almost look like a panda!" - Neji said and smiled, a blush starting to appear, but both didn't seem to notice. Neji went on with the compliments, and the more he said, the more he actually believed his words were true. - "And-and...those lips..." - it seemed like he was in a trance and his eyes seemed to sparkle, as they revealed interest, amazement and desire. Gaara was still looking at him skeptically, but the flattering seemed to cheer him up and make his feelings arise - "so soft...so kissable..." - and before Neji could say anything else, he realized that his lips were pressed against Gaara's. They kissed each other passionately for a few minutes, but it seemed just like a few seconds to them and they needed more. They pulled away in shock, at the same time after a while, looking at each other wide-eyed and breathing hard.

"I-I'm sorry!" - both said at the same time, looking perplexed at each other, since they didn't understand why they both were apologizing to each other.

"I'm sorry, I really didn't want...I...I don't know what had gotten into me!" - Neji said desperately. His body had moved on its own, but he knew that he wanted it, he knew that he needed to feel Gaara in that precise moment.

"No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have kissed you. Man, why do I have to mess up everything?" - Gaara said, face palming himself. He rubbed his cheeks and tried to stop them from burning, as Neji was just looking at him puzzled.

"What? I was the one who kissed you, I should be apologizing. I abused the situation and your sentimental crisis and kissed you without thinking" - Neji stated ashamed, he couldn't understand why the other would apologize for something he didn't do.

"No, no, no. I kissed you and abused the situation to be able to forget about my sentimental crisis!" - Gaara said, twisting the other's words in order to explain why he did it, and he also didn't seem to understand why Neji would take all the blame when he was the one starting it.

"You'll find it was me!" - Neji said and got closer to Gaara face, looking at him with a dead serious look.

"I don't think so, I told you it was my fault!" - Gaara was headstrong and hit his forehead against Neji's, sharing a deep serious look. They were fighting like this a while, before both of them realized that they were way too close and started blushing.

"Ahem, I think...we're both to blame..." - Gaara said, while looking lustfully at Neji's lips, as the latter just nodded.

"Yeah, so...uhm...what about...we continue where we left?" - Neji asked, amazed by the way the other's lips were parting.

"Fine by me!" - Gaara said, pulling the other in a kiss that was immediatly deepened by Neji. They shared lustful kisses and caresses for a long time, but they stopped as they realized that they were about to go further. They parted and started laughing like maniacs for no apparent reason.

"We're so pathetic" - Gaara said, still laughing.

"You know, if you ever need to leave your flat to leave room for Sauske and Naruto, you can always come to me, I have an extra bed" - Neji offered Gaara, blushing while looking at him lustfully.

"If you have a double bed I'll come tonight" - Gaara said, since he knew that Neji had one, but eventually he widened his eyes as he realized that he did an indecent proposal. - "I mean, I'm sure they need some space tonight" - Gaara added and scratched the back of his head shamefully, as Neji just looked at him amazed.

"Be my guest, then" - Neji said, as he stood up and took Gaara's hand. - "Let's dance now!" - he added and pulled him back to the party. Naruto and Sasuke were following close behind them, and they turned around.

"You two look so happy, did something good happen?" - Naruto said. He knew that Gaara had some special feeling towards Neji, since he always talked about him and praised him.

"You can bet! By the way, don't you worry about me, I'll be sleeping at Neji's tonight!" - Gaara said as he pulled Neji to the dancefloor, causing Naruto to laugh.

This was the start of a beautiful love story for so many people, a story filled with tears and laughs, with drama and with romance, with break ups and make ups, but hopefully it was a story that would last. Love is what makes the world go around.

* * *

Little by little, happiness gathers into love  
It's what I finally realised  
Because in the eyes that rest on my frozen shoulders  
I have found the one I want to protect  
At the next dawn the fragments rusted with regrets which I've recieved  
Shall turn into light

Just to touch each other, just to have thought of that happiness  
Welling up inside  
Even if we parted for a moment, becoming a bond that will never vanish

"Kotoko - Agony"

* * *

So, this is the really last part to this story, it was just a chapter to explain what the hell happened to Gaara, Neji, Hinata, Kiba, Ino, Sakura, Suigetsu and Karin.

Thanks for sticking with me, I hope you enjoyed it :)


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